Lord Smith and Dr Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia

Published: 2 October, 2015
by JOE COOPER

LORD Smith of Finsbury – who served as the MP for Islington South and Finsbury for 20 years – has waded into the row which has seen tenants in communal-living homes threatened with eviction.

Lord Smith has said he hopes evictions of tenants at Islington Park Street in Barnsbury by landlord One Housing Group (OHG) “will not be the way forward”.

He told the Tribune: “People facing eviction from places they have lived in for a long time – there ought to be a getter way than that.”

Lord Smith has called on OHG chief executive Mick Sweeney to restart dialogue with the residents, which broke down in 2010.

“I’m sure there is a way forward that can be agreed by discussion,” he added.

OHG is seeking possession of their homes because the occupants have no “proven entitlement” to social housing.

But in a letter to Mr Sweeney, Lord Smith said accusations that new residents at Islington Park Street were jumping the social housing queue “simply don’t hold water”. He said the fault for the breakdown of dialogue “does not lie with the residents”.

Islington Park Street, which is made up of 18 communal-living tenants over four joined-up Victorian terraces, was founded in 1976 and is believed to be the oldest co-housing-style project in London. It has been suggested that the housing providers want to sell the building, which could raise up to £12million.

Opposition to the move has been voiced by local councillors, housing experts, Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

A report released this month on Islington Park Street by London School of Economics’ Dr Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, an expert in alternative housing, has cited it as a model for tackling “the most pressing social, economic and environmental issues” in the “increasingly inaccessible heart of London”.

An OHG spokesman said: “We have made many attempts, over 10 years, to work with the residents of Islington Park Street so that we can meet our legal obligations as a social landlord.

“This action is in no way driven by a desire to sell the property for profit. We have a duty to make sure that all tenants are housed based on fair criteria and the current residents have prevented us from doing this.”