How could it be left unused in the middle of a housing crisis?

A MANSION house left empty for four years after being bought for £7.5million by the government because of HS2 should be used to help struggling families in the housing crisis, say residents in one of Camden’s most exclusive streets.

Residents in Park Village East accused the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd of “malfeasance” and “sitting on valuable assets” over its failure to bring the five-bed, three-bath John Nash-designed property into use.

Even on the private market the Grade II*- listed house, which was bought in August 2019 with taxpayers’ cash, could have clawed-back £100,000 each year if rented out.

There are more than 7,400 households on the council housing waiting list and street homelessness are at record levels in Camden.

Author Helen Low, who has lived in the street for decades, said: “It seems entirely wrong that this massive property has been sitting empty for so long. It could have been used to house homeless families – it could easily have had three families in there. We would rather have people living there than not. I think the whole street would agree with that. This is a family neighbourhood.

“To me, what has happened here suggests something broader about the waste of the whole HS2 project.”

The New Journal has reported for more than 10 years on how lives have been ruined in Camden by the HS2 project as the government ignored the opposition and ploughed in billions of pounds.

Earlier this year, Rishi Sunak, as prime minister, cancelled the northern legs and paused work at the London end. Despite hundreds of millions of pounds already being sunk into the Camden stretch of the project, the borough has been left with a brown ghost site and engineers struggling to come up with an affordable plan for how to get the new trains into Euston.

The view from the top of a roof in Park Village East

Tunnelling under Primrose Hill for a route from Old Oak Common has yet to begin with the government saying private investors will have to foot the costs.

So far vague plans to build thousands of private homes and office block towers around Euston have been suggested but the weeks, months and years pass by.

The government had seized homes and businesses to start digging. Dozens of businesses – including the Bree Louise pub – were compulsory purchased, while Drummond Street has been cut in half with its vibrant restaurant trade decimated. Parks and dozens of mature trees have been bulldozed.

Three council blocks were flattened forcing dozens of residents out of the area for good.

Despite the urgency to demolish the land, the Euston HS2 project is now on a two-year pause as a review into the spending shambles continues.

The DfT argues that clawing back rent from properties acquired due to the HS2 compensation scheme is crucial to recouping the costs of the overall scheme.

“So why has it been left empty for so long?” said Roger Low, treasurer of the PVE Residents Association. “It’s malfeasance, government malfeasance. It’s commercial stupidity.”

He added: “In our street, just three homes have been sold to the DfT. Two of them are occupied currently. Both of those took a very long time between the purchase and the rental. We are talking years.

“They are sitting on these valuable assets that could have been rented out and used in a moral way. It could have been opened up asylum seekers or people waiting for housing. But they would rather pay for people to stay in hotels.”

The Lows, 79 and 80 years old, have lived in the street since 1980.

The empty house – 4 Park Village East – was owned by their former long-term neighbours Eveline and Nicholas Carn, who had spent years in a battle with the government over selling their property, going back to 2015. During the consultation process, the couple petitioned the government saying they had been prevented from selling up under the government’s compensation scheme.

They said: “The house is too uncomfortably close to the abyss that will be London biggest dig, possibly Europe’s biggest construction site.”

The 4 Park Village East situation is the latest example of HS2 bungling to be exposed and comes as pressure once again is piled on the government to abandon the Camden leg of the project.

National debate has now been refocused on the doubling costs of the railway to Birmingham just before the conference season. An hour-long Panorama BBC special on Monday night investigated how MPs in parliament seemed to be repeatedly misled over costs of the project.

Compensation was made available to homeowners living unaccept­ably close to the construction site at an “un-blighted” rate of 10 per cent above the market value. But the reality was only a handful of homeowners managed to meet the government’s criteria for this “need to sell” scheme.

Stanley Johnson was able to sell his property to the government

One of those was Stanley Johnson, the former MEP and Gogglebox celebrity, who sold his six-bedroom, three bathroom house at in Park Village East for £4.4million to the DfT in 2016.

Neighbours in Park Village East have been told that delays in fitting a kitchen to the property are the reason why 4 Park Village East has laid empty for so long.

David Goldstein, a property investor who lives next door, said: “You can make the argument for the property being used for homeless people and refugees. But purely on a commercial level, it could be bringing in at least £100,000 a year in rent. There have been builders in pretty much constantly since it was sold. Why is it not ready?”

Asked whether he had tried to sell up to the DfT, he said: “I love my home and I’m not going to leave. I’ve put up with the disturbances that there have been so far, but I do think the worst is yet to come when they start the tunnelling. They are saying 2030 for it being ready, but it will probably be 2040. We will all be dead by the time they get it finished.”

Labour had questioned how HS2 was handled but supported the project – and party peer Baron Andrew Adonis had been a major influence on the infrastructure project.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer told the New Journal: “The last government left the Euston area in a state of limbo after years of chaos that disrupted local people and businesses.

“My government is working with stakeholders to bring clarity to the people of Holborn and St Pancras. It is my expectation that residents in Park Village East and the wider Euston area will soon have the certainty that they understandably want.”

A HS2 spokesperson said: “We always seek to let properties acquired where it is financially advantageous for the taxpayer. It’s vital that we meet compliance standards in order for any property to be let. Some properties may need time for maintenance to meet current regulations before being let.”