Lib Dems End 30 Years of Housing Uncertainty

2.14.05pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 21st Jul 2006

After 30 years of uncertainty Lib Dems have made 87 homes in Islington into secure permanent housing.

After last nights Executive decision everyone who lives in the 58 properties currently designated short life accommodation will be able to have a permanent secure tenancy with Stadium Housing Association.

Making this decision brought an end to nearly 30 years of uncertainty surrounding the position of these homes and their tenants after they were first brought in the late 1970s.

Terry Stacy Executive Member for Housing said

"We have always supported turning this housing into permanent affordable housing in some way. This has been allowed to drag on for 30 years and I'm glad the Lib Dems have sorted this out securing the homes of the people who live there.

"Short Life housing residents have offered a valuable contribution to this borough, and added to its diversity over the years. It's a great result for Islington, we always hoped that our negotiations with Solon and then Stadium would produce a positive affordable outcome."

Under the deal the council has secured

• 87 permanent affordable homes

• 25million in capital receipts to fund the improvement of other street properties and the regeneration of Churnfield and Market Estate

• The right to nominate council tenants on the waiting list to these new homes.

The homes were brought in the 1970s and 1980s by the Labour council with the SATMAN loan which cost the council millions of pounds in high interest repayments.

The council then did not have enough money to turn these homes into permanent council housing and so turned the homes into short life accommodation to stop them being squatted. Short Life housing is only meant to last a few years but many of these homes have now been left for 30 years and the tenants had no rights to housing in Islington under the law, and no surety of tenure.

Since 2000 the Lib Dems have been working with Solon Housing Association and now with Stadium Housing Association to solve the conflict between the need to use these properties to benefit Islington and the needs of the people living in them. In 2003 Solon started a pilot to turn 15 homes into permanent affordable accommodation. This has been successful and the Executive agreed last night to the rest of the scheme involving 58 more properties.