Camden’s ‘flipping’ developers should shock local taxpayers

Private property developers in Camden are making hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit by buying auctioned council homes and then ‘flipping’ them (re-selling quickly) on the open market.

Camden’s ruling Lib Dems and Tories have pursued an aggressive policy of council house sell offs despite last year’s concerns that property developers making a quick buck at the expense of homeless families and the taxpayer.

Camden Labour has reaffirmed its commitment to stopping the sell-off of desperately needed local housing, and concentrate on raising needed housing repairs money by commercial property disposals instead.

Finance spokesperson, Cllr. Theo Blackwell said: “‘Flipping’ of former council homes to make hundreds of thousands of pounds for private developers’ pockets will shock Camden’s taxpayers. It’s also a daily tragedy for the thousands of local families that languish on the growing housing waiting list.

Camden wins biggest boost to council housing

Camden is set to be the most significant beneficiary of the government’s new affordable home building programme.

Housing Minister John Healey recently confirmed yet another boost for affordable housing with news of a nearly £250 million investment to provide 3400 affordable homes and creating around 5,000 jobs across the country.

In all, 43 Housing Associations across 97 council areas and within every region of the country will benefit from the funding boost.

Camden is set to receive the highest amount, £42 million for 284 homes.

All the new homes announced this week will be affordable, with more than four in every five built for low cost rent, and the rest for first time buyers.

Labour Group leader Cllr. Nasim Ali welcomed the £42 million investment – the largest sum in the country:

“Every councillor knows that housing is the number one concern local people have at our surgeries. Locally Labour’s never stopped lobbying for more affordable housing, so £42 million for 300 new homes is fantastic news.

Camden Belsize Park council flats ‘flipped’ by developers

Camden council flats in desirable Belsize Park NW3, bought at auction by private developers earlier this year, have been ‘flipped’, for a potentially massive profit – Camden Labour can reveal.

Sold as part of Tory-Lib Dem Camden’s council house sales programme, a three flat home on the Russell Nurseries Estates in Aspern Grove only left council control at the start of last month, when it was snapped up at auction for £560,000.

Now just one of the flats is being marketed for buyers at the sum of £250,000 – a price the estate agent described on their website as “unbelievable” – allowing the buyer to make a substantial profit almost overnight.

This is despite the fact that there are 18,000 people on Camden’s waiting lists.

Most GP’s surgeries now open longer hours in Camden

Two thirds of GP surgeries in Camden are now offering patients extended opening hours, according to Department of Health statistics.

The figure exceeds the 50% expectation set when conducting the controversial changes to the GP contract in April last year.

The change, bitterly opposed by the Conservatives at the time, followed the first national GP Patient Surveys in 2007 and 2008 which indicated that there were around six and a half million patients who were unhappy with their GP practice’s opening hours.

These patients said they would find it easier to access services if they could make appointments at the weekend, in the evening or early in the morning.

Camden Labour’s spokesperson Theo Blackwell said:

“Locally there has been a steady increase in the number of practices offering more flexible early morning, evening and weekend opening, with 29 out of 41 now doing so.

Boris leaves £4m “financial hole” in Kings Cross jobs and training schemes

A massive £4 million cut has been served on successful jobs and training schemes in the vital Kings Cross regeneration area by Tory Mayor Boris Johnson, Camden Labour reveals.

As a result of “new priorities” for the London Development Agency, budgets for Kings Cross Construction Training Centre and the Camden Working Job Brokerage, which help out-of-work residents back into the jobs market, have been removed just when people need such help the most – and in an area ready to be regenerated.

Thanks to Boris, from the end of next month the Camden taxpayer now has to step in to safeguard these vital schemes, with £4 million of extra money, roughly equivalent to 2 percent extra on council tax a year for local households.

Tory/Lib Dem-run Camden council described Boris’ plans as leaving them with the need “to fill the financial hole left by the ending of the LDA area programme in March 2009″. Labour councillors add that the schemes help the most deprived parts of south Camden and Islington and are needed as we enter recession.

Fury at Lib Dem Town Hall pay hike bid

Camden Liberal Democrat councillors voted their colleagues on three panels a pay hike of £5000 a year despite ‘credit crunch’ pressures on the council’s budget for local services and local peoples’ fears about unemployment.

Out-of-touch councillors want more money for their work at Town Hall, despite their panels not having any decision-making powers.

Meanwhile, Camden is one of the only councils not to have developed a proper economic plan to help local businesses and residents through the recession. Other councils have helped homeowners, created jobs or cut council tax or charges.

Camden currently doesn’t have a plan to help the local economy, despite having large reserves. Camden has amassed some of the highest budget reserves around – £80 million – by cutting services over the last three years.

Camden Labour calls on Council to pass on VAT cut to service users

Camden Labour today demanded that Lib Dem/Conservative run Camden Council pass on the Government’s 2.5% VAT cut to service users for ‘paid-for’ services like parking, swimming, building control and licensing.

Camden’s fees and charges raised from residents currently bring in £85 million a year, £30 million of which are raised from parking charges and fines. Labour is asking the Council to identify VAT-rated services and pass on the full cut either by reducing fees or giving users a one-off sum at the end of the year.

A poll of 34 finance officers by Local Government Chronicle revealed that a third of finance officers and chief executives are expecting to leave their prices unchanged, while another third will only pass on part of the cut. However, some councils, have passed on the full cut for a range of services.

Kiburn Job Centre saved thanks to Labour

Kilburn’s Job Centre Plus (JCP) has been given a reprieve thanks to concerted lobbying by local Labour campaigners.

The JCP in Cambridge Avenue, used by many residents on the Camden side of the Kilburn High Road, had been threatened with closure.

The proposal to close the centre was made as part of a national review by Job Centre Plus. If it gone ahead, jobseekers would have had to go as far afield as Kentish Town, Highgate, Willesden or North Kensington.

The local Labour campaigners argued that the JCP was needed in an economically disadvantaged area like Kilburn, especially given the economic downturn. In September this year 6.2 per cent of people on the Camden side, and six per cent of people on the Brent side of the Kilburn High Road were registered unemployed.

Camden ditches commitment to affordable new housing “on the sly”

Camden’s historic commitment to 50% affordable housing on new developments is being ditched on the sly, say Camden Labour Councillors.

New council development proposals are to introduce a new “sliding scale” of 10% to 50% to cover the amount of affordable housing required on developments of less than 50 homes – the vast majority of all developments in Camden.

The effect of this, warn Labour councillors, will be to reduce the amount of affordable homes required from developers and hamper attempts to reduce Camden’s massive housing waiting list.

In October Mayor Boris Johnson ditched Ken Livingstone’s commitment for 50% affordable housing.

Camden Council leaving the dead unburied at weekends

Muslim and Jewish residents in Camden are being let down by the failure of Lib Dem/Tory run Camden council to allow residents from these two communities to follow religious custom and bury loved-ones on the same day as their death, owing to a failure by the council to operate an all-day service on Saturdays and Sundays.

Responsibility for civil registration passed from the Crown to local authorities last year, ensuring that equality legislation now fully applies to the service. This should have meant that the service changed to balance the needs of people from different cultures and faiths.

However, in Camden services remained unchanged – bringing further pain to families who have been effectively told by the council that they can’t bury their relatives according to custom on weekends because “the offices are shut”.