Joe McNamee in Burton Street where people have told they must leave their homes

DOZENS of council tenants are being forced to leave their flats after the council failed to secure a new lease on the building with the private freeholders.

Some of the affected residents have been living in the flats in Burton Street, Bloomsbury, for 37 years and say they will struggle to find a new place to live at affordable prices.

They have been given until December to get out.

Both the freeholder and the council have blamed each other for the termination of the lease.

Care leaver Rebecca Dasilva, 30, one of the tenants, told the New Journal: “There’s been weeks where it’s affected me to the point where I have to call in sick to work. I was bounced around from home to home – that Tracy Beaker lifestyle. Then you can’t wait to turn 18 to get your permanent residency.”

She has lived in Burton Street for the past nine years and assumed it would be her home forever, putting put roots down in Bloomsbury.

She said she thinks the council should do more to help residents find another flat, adding: “As far as I know, having spoken with my neighbours, we’ve all been given between 610-630 points. Even though that sounds like quite a lot it’s not really enough to get you anywhere.”

She said the options are housing association properties that are double her weekly rent or places on estates in Kilburn which are too far away from her work and community.

Another resident, bartender Joe McNamee, 61, told the New Journal he and his partner had spent hundreds of pounds decorating their flat.

He said: “I have to move. It’s not my choice, but we were told to go and look like anybody else. We’re told every Thursday you can go on a site, and it tells you what properties are coming up. It’s like being on a TV quiz show. They’re all costing between 50 and 80 pounds per week more in rent.

“An extra £60 a week would basically mean having no life. It feels like a punishment for a crime that we’ve not committed. In this exceptional circumstance, we deserve the necessary assistance to make the move to a place – we most likely won’t like – as stress reduced and financially reduced experience as possible.”

WATCH OUR POLITICS CHANNEL, PEEPS, ON YOUTUBE

The freehold of 40 to 45 in Burton Street is owned by a charity called the Sir Andrew Judd Foundation. It leased the properties to Camden from 1962. The charity’s aims are to provide “items, services and facilities” including scholarships and prizes for Tonbridge School, a private school in Kent where boarding fees are £59,124 a year.

Its trustee, a livery company called The Worshipful Company of the Skinners, told the New Journal: “The council has indicated that it is not seeking to renew its headlease at the end of its fixed term and the Sir Andrew Judd Foundation, a charity, is therefore in the process of considering its options as freehold owner.”

But a spokesperson for Camden Council said: “We’re working closely with residents at Burton Street to help find them new homes as the lease is ending. We have given additional priority for these residents to bid for council homes through our letting scheme and will cover the cost of moving in line with our policies.”