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Homes before City exec ‘flats’
• THE Mayor of London realises that tackling the crisis in new and affordable housing must be a priority for London and for Islington.
Yet the response from Islington Council to the Mayor’s plan has been to issue scare stories about the Mayor “forcing through big developments”.
I would like to give a real example of the problem that we face under the council’s current policies. At a planning committee earlier this year there was an application for a massive “apart-hotel” (short-stay luxury flats for City execs, by any other name) in White Lion Street near Angel.
A majority on the committee voted it down – and we will be defending this at an appeal.
We argued the need for a mixed development, including some new and affordable homes.
We felt that on a large site like this, near transport links, and with a tight community, we need some homes for local people.
Yet the Lib Dem on the committee voted for the development as it stood – happy to see a large site in Angel taken up by a huge “apart-hotel”.
This “apart-hotel” will be no good for the 13,000 families on the waiting list in Islington – nor people who grew up in Islington and would like the chance to live somewhere nearby.
The discussion we are having is not about the Mayor “forcing through big developments”. It’s about cases like this, where we say homes for local people are more important than an “apart-hotel”.
CLLR JAMES MURRAY
Labour, Barnsbury |
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