The O2 Centre site on Finchley Road

• AN interesting leaflet dropped through my and other West Hampstead residents’ letterboxes delivering yet more Tory lies about the O2 Centre development scheme.

The leaflet claims that this is a Camden scheme when it has been clearly established throughout the consultation process that the development is a proposal from the commercial property developer Landsec PLC, who own the site and who will profit substantially from the sales of these million-pound-plus flats.

Added to that is the hypocrisy that Landsec could only apply to build this scheme, on what was originally publicly owned land, thanks to Tory government policy.

It is Conservative policy that allows landowners to make huge capital gains from developing land in cities or the countryside.

Costly government schemes to help home buyers have had the perverse effect of forcing up house prices, while doing nothing to help cash-strapped councils like Camden provide warm and safe housing for those in the greatest need.

The Tories’ big idea for solving the housing crisis is to pressurise councils into approving high-priced housing developments, in which just a tiny proportion of homes is made available for social rent.

Camden’s role in the O2 scheme is to hold out against the demands of the property developers for maximum profit and retain some benefit for the community, including desperately needed social and affordable housing which Camden’s policy requires should be at least 50 per cent of the development.

The Tories complain that Camden isn’t consulting residents. Yet it’s the current Tory government that last year proposed planning “reforms” that take power away from local people to object to developments in their area.

SHARON HARDWICK
Labour Candidate for West Hampstead ward