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Mayor Ken Livingstone |
Ken is urged to stop homes sell-off
Livingstone told to step in to block latest homes auction just days after mayoral election
LONDON mayor Ken Livingstone has been told to put his money where his mouth is and help stop the sale of another batch of Camden council homes if he is re-elected next Thursday.
Mr Livingstone has twice indicated in the last month that he is in an ideal position to end Camden’s housing conditions crisis by stumping up the investment needed to clear a backlog of repairs.
In theory, if the council was to receive funding from the mayor’s office, the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition could abandon their unpopular policy of selling off 500 street properties.
Housing chiefs maintain the homes have to
be auctioned off to raise enough money to repair the rest of the borough’s council properties and estates, despite a clear indication from Mr Livingstone, a former Camden councillor, that he is opposed to them slipping into private hands.
The five properties pictured above are part of an auction planned for May 14 – the third sale to be held on Camden’s behalf since the sell-off programme began last year. They include a flat incorporated in the listed Oak Tree House in leafy Redington Gardens in Hampstead, likely to rake in more than £1 million.
The Town Hall is expected to net another £500,000 from a house in Hillfield Road, West Hampstead, that will also go under the hammer.
The other properties are in Kentish Town and Camden Town.
While the council’s stance is that the homes that are being put on the market are beyond repair – within their budgets, at least – there will be no shortage of interest among developers recognising the chance for a quick profit.
Housing campaigners are now calling on Mr Livingstone to follow up his promise to help by ensuring that the sale is cancelled in his first fortnight of what would be his third term as mayor.
Kathleen O’Donoghue, from the Camden Association of Street Properties, said: “It’s now time to put aside party differences, cherished party policies and ideologies and for the council, as a landlord, to demonstrate it really values and understands the needs of its tenants and truly values tenant participation.
“Now is the time to call for an emergency meeting involving us and the mayor’s office before the elections. And to press for this money and postpone the May 14 auction of yet more of our beautiful homes.”
There is much scepticism among Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors at the Town Hall that Mr Livingstone will be able to deliver on the promise if he is elected – and the timing has even stuck in the throat of some of the most cynical tenants leaders, who have been calling for direct investment for four years and are wary of being suckered in by a potential election stunt.
Although it is accepted by all that whoever is mayor will take control of housing finance in London in a government shift, the suspicion is that most of a £4 billion piggy bank will be swallowed up with plans to build new social housing – rather than refurbishing Camden’s existing stock.
Nicky Gavron, the deputy mayor who is fighting for the London Assembly seat for Camden and Barnet next week, said Mr Livingstone would not have time to intervene before the elections.
“Ken cannot do anything before the election,” she said.
“Once that is over, the answer is for Camden to invite the mayor and the government to sit down and find a way to enable existing council homes to meet the decent homes standard, preferably within council ownership.
“In advance of this, it would be premature, and indeed foolish, for Camden to sell off homes. There is no reason why a way can’t be found to stop these properties being sold off.” |
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