Sadiq Khan visits the Abbey regeneration site

LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan was shown around new homes built in a deal between Camden Council and private contractors on Thursday morning.

The 141 new properties around Abbey Road, West Hampstead, were hailed as a success of the Town Hall’s “North Sea Oil’ investment programme. Sixty-six are council homes, and 75 are available on the private market.

The mayor’s tour, however, comes with some Labour backbenchers, the Tory group and Green Party councillor Sian Berry calling for the Community Investment Programme – the CIP – to be analysed with a scrutiny panel investigation, the council’s version of parliamentary select committees.

It also coincided with an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, published this week, which claimed councils were selling assets “from under you” sometimes to pay redundancy bills during the austerity years. Across the country £9.1billion worth of public property has been sold, the network of reporters said.

In Camden, the CIP was likened to North Sea Oil by the Labour leadership at the scheme’s inception, with the idea that Camden could tap into an unrivalled portfolio of land and property in an expensive part of London to lever in finance for homes and schools. Buildings have been sold and deals with the private sector struck so some estates were and are being refurbished, while developers were able to include private properties on the sites.

Camden’s sales were included in the bureau’s list, but nearly all have been well-documented locally in recent years.

Regeneration chief Councillor Danny Beales said: “It does not give a fair reflection of how we have sold some old buildings and invested in new community facilities. We sold the old Town Hall annexe and invested in 5PS, which has better facilities.”

5PS is shorthand for Five Pancras Square, the council offices, library and leisure centre in King’s Cross.

“Money has also been invested in the Greenwood Centre, which opened last week. We’ve built new schools – so to get a fair and accurate picture you have to look at the new public assets we have.”

Cllr Beales said the CIP was “one of the most scrutinised policies”.

It had originated as a way to pay for new homes and schools after the government cut public spending, including the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future fund.

“If there had been government investment for Camden, we would have still invested in services,” he said. “We would just have done it in a slightly different way and we would have been able to accelerate the building of more homes. We hear about possible alternatives, but I’m still waiting for suggestions to be passed on to me. Without CIP, we wouldn’t have had these new homes, new facilities.”

Sian Berry

Critics say Camden has “sold the family silver” and not maximised the value of its portfolio, and then seen costs overrun on building projects.

Cllr Berry said: “The money raised through selling assets, as well as the progress of the CIP schemes and value for money of redevelopment projects all need looking at in detail by councillors from all parties, with full information provided by the council.”

She added: “Every bit of transparency on the CIP so far has been hard won by residents, opposition members and the press and there has been far less cooperation than we would have liked.”