CAMDEN Council has been accused of “flying directly against” its own planning rules by refusing to include any social housing in a proposed multi-million-pound dev­elopment in West Hampstead.

Residents demanded to know why the council was still claiming to be “too poor” to include affordable homes in the Liddell Road project even after a £6.7million government grant, a meeting of the West Hampstead Neighbourhood Development Forum heard on Monday.

The plan, which was approved by the council in December, would redevelop Kingsgate Primary School to deliver 420 new school places in a brand-new building, after council officers claimed the shortage was so bad that parents were “forced” to send their children to schools in Chelsea and Kensington.

To fund the project, the surrounding land, which is currently council workshops and garages, would be sold off to a private contractor to build 120 flats and 2,500sqm of commercial space.

But planners are set to waive any need for social housing – despite private developments in the borough usually being required to include up to 50 per cent.

Concerned residents claimed that the council wanted to “build a school with gold taps” and sell flats to investors from “Hong Kong and Singapore” at the expense of “working-class residents”.

The project had already raised questions in February when the New Journal revealed that the 21 businesses operating on the site feared as many as 250 people could lose their jobs if the plans went ahead.

Lib Dem councillor Flick Rea, for Fortune Green, told the meeting at West Hampstead Library: “This goes against every single Camden planning policy ever since I have been on the council.”

Ian Cohen, who stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate for West Hampstead at the recent elections, added: “I thought that Camden had a hard-and-fast rule for social housing? How can Camden break its own rules?”

Kate Cornwall Jones, senior development manager for children, schools and families in Camden, who led a presentation to the meeting, replied that the development was the “priority” and “does not support additional social housing”.

Questioned as to why the council could not use some of the £6.7m grant it received in January, Ms Cornwall Jones said that the cash had been ring-fenced for school places.

A spokeswoman from Camden Council said that the development would include “a small number of affordable housing units for people with physical disabilities” and that social housing would be provided by the new development at 156 West End Lane, but that “much more affordable housing is unlikely to be viable”.

A planning application is expected in the autumn.