Treasury pulls out of private deal to refurbish 700-flat ‘worst estate’

Cllr Raj Chada

STRAINED relations between the government and the Town Hall’s housing department sunk to a new low last night (Wednesday) as the Treasury pulled out of a deal to finance major refurbishment works on a crumbling Swiss Cottage estate.
Treasury officials called the council to tell them that a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme to improve the 700-flat Chalcot Estate in Adelaide Road would no longer be supported.
Their decision came despite backing for the £100-million project from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott (ODPM), which has regularly told Camden it must consider using PFI schemes to pay for much-needed work.
The Chalcot scheme has been in the pipeline for six years but crestfallen housing supremo Councillor Raj Chada was forced to admit yesterday (Wednesday): “The project is dead.”
Tenants and leaseholders reacted with dismay to the news.
Peter Harvey, who lives in the Blashford block, said: “This is ridiculous. Even if they just used some money to do the windows it would keep the OAPs and the disabled warm but we are being left without anything. It is freezing up here. Nobody should be expected to live in conditions like this.”
The surprise decision comes as a hammer blow to the council’s hopes of refurbishing the estate’s five tower blocks which are in desperate need of attention. In the last year, there have been two fires, rat and cockroach infestation, gas leaks, misfiring water pipes and lift breakdowns. Blashford has been dubbed ‘Camden’s worst council estate’.
Outraged Tory leader Councillor Piers Wauchope said: “We are very disappointed. This has been going on for so long and the tenants have been left with nothing. We want the council now to say that they will make these blocks a priority.”
But senior council staff were warning last night that the project would not go ahead without government cash.
Housing Director Neil Litherland said: “There isn’t a plan B. The Chalcot Estate is now in the same position as a lot of other estates in Camden that need attention.”
Cllr Chada said: “We are very angry about this. I am shocked the Treasury has made a decision at the eleventh hour that the scheme is too costly, despite four years of work and negotiation with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to make the deal work.”
Cllr Chada and other senior councillors are now demanding a re-think and have already spoken with ministers.
Further conversations are likely to cover the wider problems facing Camden’s housing department which is still short of £283 million and in dispute over whether it should be given direct investment, as demanded by its tenants.
The cash, earmarked for the Town Hall in 2003, has been withheld by Whitehall since tenants and leaseholders voted against the government’s flagship policy of transferring control of homes to new independent companies, known as Arms-Length Management Organisations (Almos).