Be wary, sell-off tenants warned as Crown Estate offloads to Peabody Trust

Published: 4th November, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

CAST-IRON guarantees over the future of homes for pensioners, key workers and the low-paid must be given before tenants will lend their support to a plan to sell their homes by the Crown Estate to a social landlord, a meeting heard last night (Wednesday).

Tenants living in Cumberland Market, Regent’s Park, which has been managed by the Crown Estate for 80 years, met to discuss the proposed sale of 500 family homes to social landlords The Peabody Trust.

Today (Thursday) and on Saturday tenants will have the chance to quiz staff from the Crown about the projected £150million sale and air their views. 

A panel made up of Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, residents’ association chairman Steve Smith and housing lawyer Robert Latham urged tenants to go in groups to the consultation meetings, ask for any copies of notes taken during discussions and to be wary of what they agree to. 

At the meeting last night at Christ Church primary school, a stone’s throw from the  estate, more than 150 tenants heard the panel lay out what the sale to the Peabody Trust could mean, and they underlined that no legal guarantees had been received over rents and leases offered. 

Mr Smith added that judging by the behaviour of the Crown over the sale so far, until the deal had been put down on paper and had legal experts run a fine tooth comb over it, they would be wary of any promises made. 

He said: “We want cast-iron guarantees about the terms of the contracts. Nothing has been forthcoming yet.”

He added the Crown had been notoriously hard to get any information from. 

“They have treated us with contempt,” he said. “They have said they want to sell our homes and invest in retail parks and shopping malls.”

Mr Dobson congratulated the tenants on a campaign that has waged war against bureaucrats out to make big money for the body which manages assets once owned by the Monarch and is used to fund the lifestyles of the Royals. 

He said: “I am of the view that you were better off as tenants of the Crown Estate than other landlords. 

“But being a tenant of the Peabody Trust is a better proposal than ­others that were inter­ested. Without your campaign, you could have ended up with somebody very dodgy – some very dodgy outfits were sniffing around,” he added.