Cllr Phil Graham: ‘I think personally, if we all work together, we can get some massive improvements to the whole estate’

A COUNCILLOR has weighed in on a battle over controversial plans to build new council homes in the south of the borough.

Cllr Phil Graham is a Bunhill representative and resident of Braithwaite House, a large council-owned building on the Banner Estate near Old Street.

The Town Hall has earmarked Braithwaite House as a site for the development of 44 new homes, 25 of which will be new council homes. The remaining units will be built as private homes to cross-fund the social housing.

The planning application is currently being validated by planning officers, who will determine whether it can progress to the planning committee. Cllr Graham this week gave the planning application his full support, calling on his neighbours to “work together” to secure benefits for the estate.

“I think personally, if we all work together, we can get some massive improvements to the whole estate, which is sorely needed,” he said.

Many of Cllr Graham’s neighbours do not support the plans, arguing they will be subjected to extensive disruption from the building works and lose outdoor space in a densely populated area.

But Cllr Graham said he had been convinced by the plans, which would allow for “a nice green area with trees and bushes”, adding that there “has been some misinformation” on the estate about the amount of space and light that would be lost if the project goes ahead.

He said he had been convinced of the necessity of the scheme because of the intense housing pressure in Bunhill and the borough more widely, with 14,000 households on the waiting list for council homes.

In a message to his neighbours, Cllr Graham urged them to put their “valid arguments” against the scheme to planning officers.

“If the planning committee find that it’s OK to go through, then work with us to try and get some improvements for the whole estate,” he added.

At a rowdy council meeting last week, which was interrupted several times by interjections from the public gallery, Braithwaite House resident Claire Davies questioned Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Islington’s planning chief, on the financing of the project. She said the estimated cost of the redevelopment, which stood at £30million at the beginning of the year “seems a very high cost given the fact there’s just 24 expected council houses… that’s going to come out of it”.

She said such expenditure was a “huge undertaking at this point in time where contractors can’t be guaranteed in terms of their costs and expenditure, loans and borrowing is increasing, [and] no costs can be estimated. How can you even guarantee that the costs that you estimated back in March or last year… are even applicable now?”

Cllr Ward acknowledged it was “a very very uncertain market”, blaming the “Tory cost of living crisis”,and adding that the government only gives the council one third of the budget for every home built.

As the pound falls after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget on Friday, the cost of raw materials is set to spiral. In the coming months, this may bring into question the feasibility of large construction projects.