19.07.18
Haringey Council ditches £2bn housing partnership with private developer
Haringey Council has ditched plans for a £2bn collaboration with a property developer that could have brought over 6,000 homes to the area over the next 20 years.
The council, who were labelled “negligent and in denial” over tower blocks at risk of collapse last month, scrapped the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) with developer Lendlease UK because it “did not believe the HDV provides the answer to the challenges faced by the council,” according to the authority’s documents on the plans.
The 50/50 public-private scheme was given the green light by the High Court in February, despite staunch opposition from locals. The plans were so contentious that council leader Cllr Claire Kober stood down from the role, citing the HDV’s plans to sell off council assets as one of the factors that went into her resignation.
Since Labour took over at local elections in May, however, leader of Haringey Council Joseph Ejiofor said the council “firmly believe” the currently public land should stay under public ownership.
Joseph Ejiofor, leader of Haringey Council, said: “The preference of this administration, as stated in our manifesto, is to build council homes on our own land. We firmly believe that what is currently public land should remain in public ownership.
“Building on commitments we made during the recent elections, we have now taken decisive action to set a new direction for the council, with this final decision that the HDV will not now go ahead.”
In council board papers, Haringey said: “The new administration does not agree with the proposed transfer of public assets out of 100% public ownership at the scale envisaged by the HDV proposals.
“The proposed project agreements would commit the council to transferring the Commercial Portfolio and (subject to conditions being met) the Wood Green development sites to the HDV, which is in itself a large scale, multi-site transfer of assets out of sole council control.
“A transfer on this scale is not an acceptable approach for the new council administration.”
Haringey also highlighted the risk involved with them move — throughout the development of the HDV proposals, a degree of risk was recognised, including those related to committing its commercial portfolio and land for development.
The cost of the scrapping of the scheme will cost around £3m, including a £500k payment to Lendlease UK.
The chief executive of Lendlease Europe, Dan Labbad, has written to the authority saying the HDV offered flexible frameworks which offered enormous benefits to the area’s housing and local economy.
“We are extremely disappointed the council has voted not to proceed with the HDV without even offering us the opportunity to discuss face to face, undoing four years of planning in just a matter of weeks,” said Labbad.
“At the end of the day it’s the residents of Haringey who will suffer most from this decision, given that 10,000 families remain in desperate need of a home.”
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Image credit: Alan Stanton, Flickr