Published: 3 February, 2012

• As most residents are having to “cut their cloth according to their means” in these austere times, the first thing Islington councillors are planning to do when they take over the £363.794m debt within their housing revenue account responsibility under the new government ruling on April 1 is to borrow a further £33m between 2012 and 2019 at interest rates of between 3.94 per cent and 11.37 per cent, a further 30-year debt at annual repayments between £12m and £21m.

No one disagrees that more council housing is needed for our ever-growing population but this is a government responsibility not local councils’. In London, many of the 33 boroughs have refused to build the Greater London Authority (GLA) council house quotas to meet government “targets”, leading to the less affluent boroughs trying to fulfil the wealthier boroughs’ commitments.

At the recent GLA Review, which was debating leaseholders’ problems created by being overcharged by £700m to £1bn, mainly because of the “outsourcing of housing management duties” and lack of local financial monitoring and control, it was clear that spending other people’s money is no hardship to officers or councils, no matter how much debt they get us into.  

Hopefully, at Islington Leaseholders Forum meeting at Islington Town Hall on Wednesday councillors Catherine West and James Murray will answer questions on financial and other issues affecting leaseholders.

Helen Cagnoni
WC1