Crown Estate to push ahead with home sales

Friday May 21, 2010

EXCLUSIVE By DAN CARRIER

LANDLORDS the Crown Estate have revealed today that it intends to push ahead with their controversial plans to sell off homes in Camden.

The Estate, which manages over 500 homes in Cumberland Market, Regents Park, has been planning to sell the homes for nearly 18 months in the face of stiff opposition by tenants.

But today the New Journal can reveal that after a Crown board meeting earlier this week, the sale is firmly on and they are now looking to find a buyer.

Chairman of The Crown Estate said Sir Stuart Hampson said in a statment: “The Board is  conscious that this is an issue which has great sensitivity for its residents.

“The Crown Estate’s approach to business is guided by our commitment to integrity and stewardship alongside a commercial approach to managing our property portfolio.  The Crown Estate Act places a clear requirement on us to enhance the value of the Estate and the income it generates for the Treasury. 

“The Board agreed with stakeholders and residents that these estates provide valuable key worker rented  accommodation. However, it also noted that these estates remain only a small part of The Crown Estate’s portfolio, that there are no plans to increase this provision, and that The Crown Estate is under no statutory duty to provide housing of this type.

“Taking all these factors into account, the Board believes that the estates would be more effectively run by an organisation whose core business is managing this type of housing subject to important conditions in respect of the continued provision of key worker rented housing in the future. 

“We are satisfied that the proposed way forward will fully meet the concerns which have been so clearly expressed to us and allow these estates to continue to play a role in the provision of key worker accommodation in London.”

Tenants Association chairman Steve Smith said that while the Crown had taken on board many of their concerns, they had not made anything legally binding and they would be looking for guarantees on the future of their homes.

He said: “There is nothing cast iron in this and we will be speaking to our legal advisers. There is nothing to stop them selling off our houses to another party, and then it being sold on again – without any guarantees over rent or allocating homes to key workers.”