Camden News: Town Hall | Nigel Barrett

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Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 8 May 2008

Home to be sold by council ‘just needed paint job’

A FOUR-BEDROOM council house put up for auction because Town Hall chiefs say it is too expensive to refurbish is just in need of “a lick of a paint”, its former tenant has claimed.
Nigel Barrett said when he left the property in Marquis Road, Camden Town, (pictured) last summer he expected a family to move into the house, as cash had just been spent replacing patio doors, rebuilding garden walls and replacing broken concrete.
He was shocked to recognise the house in last week’s New Journal and to read that it is due to be sold off at a property auction next week.
The justification for shedding around 500 street properties from the Town Hall has been that the money raised will go to repaying the rest of the stock, and that the homes being sold would be too costly to refurbish.
Mr Barrett said: “It is such a shame that the council is selling these houses off when there are so many people in need of one, especially families. From what I could see there was no structural problems with the house. I’d say it just needed a lick of paint.”
Mr Barrett was moved into the house as a supposedly short-life tenant but ended up staying 15 years before being placed elsewhere in Camden.
Campaigners are worried that instead of lobbying the government for extra investment in council homes, Camden’s Lib Dem and Conservative coalition has agreed to raise the money itself at the cost of selling off much-needed accommodation.
The Camden Association of Street Properties is concerned that the Marquis Road example may not be an isolated case. Spokeswoman Kathleen O’Donoghue said: “It is quite clear that many residents are demanding that the entire process be made more transparent. For example, one resident at the last CASP general meeting insisted that all street property structural surveys and costings be made available for public scrutiny before any properties are listed for sale by Camden Council.
“If Camden Council has nothing to hide why can’t it comply with this simple request?”
Liberal Democrat housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor said: “Five of the flats that are for sale were not be used by council tenants anyway – they were leased to housing associations on a short-life basis. When they were returned to them we had them surveyed and our surveyor said there was range of things that needed to be done.”
He added: “In Marquis Road the work needed brings it above the threshold we are working on and beyond our means for repair. That’s why it has been offered for sale.”

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