Inside the property in Camden Town

WATCH OUR HISTORY CHANNEL, UNTOLD LONDON, ON YOUTUBE

IT has been “cuckooed” by drug dealers, played host to domestic abuse and lain empty for months, despite suspicious comings and goings through an unsecured front window.

But now questions are being asked about a council plan to sell-off the one-bedroom flat in Camden Street, Camden Town – which has been empty for six months – on the private market.

The New Journal understands the property has been earmarked for sale through a programme aimed at raising funds to buy family-sized homes that are in short supply.

Neighbour Nathalie Allcorn said: “This flat has not had a tenant in it since September, and when I asked what’s going on I was told no repairs have been started because there are discussions about it being sold going on.

“There are two sides of this. An emotional side, in the sense that if they sell it to someone that is going to rent it out, it’s going to be someone who has to be able to afford the rent, and that could probably mean it will be easier for me. It has been a complete nightmare.

“But on the other side I have my community consciousness. I am a council tenant, I don’t want to think selfishly about housing. I used to volunteer at St Pancras Community Centre. I know there are elderly people who want a ground-floor council flat.

“The main thing I believe is that in the long run with these sales of council homes we are losing a Camden community. We can’t even house our own elderly around here.”

The flat is in Camden Street, Camden Town

Ms Allcorn, who is currently housebound, took the New Journal through a long history of neglect of the flat and its tenants by the council. She said she had spent years contacting various authorities with concerns that began when she started “hearing people getting beat up” inside the flat.

She has been involved in various legal cases about domestic abuse investigations and concerns over cuckooing which led to the flat becoming vacant last September.

Since then the flat was squatted after the property was not properly secured.

Just after Christmas her security cam footage showed a man checking out the front window, before returning a day later and entering the property in full view of the busy street.

Ms Allcorn said: “It has felt like for a long time that people around Camden know something about this property, the way they act around it.” On New Year’s Eve, a couple of girls arrived with boxes with one entering through the open front window and coming to open the front door.

“We had 32 credit cards all in different names arrive at the door. There were bailiffs for people who didn’t exist coming to the door. There was always a constant different form of nuisance going on.”

Burnt out tea lights inside the flat

On the private market ­– even with the work needed ­ – the flat could be worth £600,000.

Ms Allcorn said police looked over the flat and said it was likely it had been used to stash drugs, with “dispensing machines in the back room”. “They look like old school sweet machines, when you turn the handle a certain amount comes out,” said Ms Allcorn.

The New Journal looked around the flat seeing dirty mattress on the floor with rows of tea light candles. Despite the picture of decay, ripped up floors and crumbling paint, the home seemed to be in decent structural condition. The Family Friendly Housing scheme aims to raise money to buy back 280 homes sold under right-to-buy for families on the waiting list through the sale of smaller council homes.

Housing chief Councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali, said: “With over 8,000 people on our housing waiting list, and 70 per cent of these families living in severely overcrowded conditions, there is an urgent need to increase the number of family-sized homes in Camden. “We are currently reviewing this one-bedroom property to be potentially sold as part of our Family Friendly scheme – a self-funded programme. . . As a decision is being made, we are securing this property as a matter of urgency.”

Last summer the CNJ reported on a two-bed flat in Remsted House in Mortimer Crescent estate, Kilburn, that had been sold off under Right to Buy but was bought by the council as part of the Family Friendly Housing scheme. It was then left empty for a year, after squatters moved in, before finally being let out in December.