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Carole House residents from left: Jocelyn Gamble, Sally de Sousa and Adrian Hemmings |
Mystery of flats ‘with a view’ nobody wants
Broadcaster Joan’s suspicion as park-view homes stay empty
BROADCASTER Joan Bakewell has said she is suspicious at the lack of takers for prize homes overlooking Primrose Hill, despite a 200-strong waiting list for sheltered accommodation.
The Primrose Hill-based journalist said she was surprised that the council has failed to shift 22 flats in the Oldfield estate with a rent of around £100 a week.
The homes, set in exclusive Regent’s Park Road, have been empty since September. Last week the housing association put a sign on the block advertising the ‘retirement homes’, because the council had not provided them with any tenants.
Ms Bakewell said: “I find that hard to believe. I don’t like to call people liars but I’m sure you could find people (who want the flats) – it overlooks Primrose Hill for heaven’s sake. It beggars belief that no-one wants to live in Primrose Hill when on the open market they’re gold dust. It seems very odd and I’m rather suspicious. Have they made any real effort to find anyone?”
Oldfield resident Adrian Hemming, 61, added: “Camden has a housing list that could fill a Butlin’s holiday camp.”
The housing group Central and Cecil Housing Trust (CCHT) put the flats back on the rental market last year after a battle over the future of the homes. CCHT wanted to turn them into extra care homes while residents wanted to keep them sheltered accommodation.
Extra care homes are for more frail and elderly people who need round the clock care.
Camden recently published a pamphlet explaining to care home tenants why a “modernisation” of their homes is needed.
A Camden press official claimed people haven’t bid for the homes because they are too small. She said: “It’s down to personal preference. These are bedsit places. People don’t necessarily want a bedsit. If they wanted them then they would bid for them.”
Labour ward councillor Pat Callaghan called the situation “mysterious”. She said: “It makes me feel very uncomfortable that neither Camden nor the housing association have found people for the empty bedsit flats.
“It’s rather co-incidental that since the failed bid by Central and Cecil for the high need care home that this is happening. It could seem as if they’re withholding access.”
A Camden press official added: “It’s a case of a choice being available and people not choosing it.”
Tenant leader Sally de Sousa said: “The wider question is about the future of sheltered housing.” Camden and Central and Cecil decided in 2003 to begin decanting Oldfield, she claimed.
Last summer the housing group was preparing to cash in on a £2 million grant from central government to redevelop the site into care homes, but following a sustained campaign by residents they were forced to dump the scheme.
CCHT housing chief Stephen Dunphy refused to confirm or deny the number of empty flats was 22. |
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