• THANK you to the Islington Tribune from Islington Homes for All (IHfA) for reporting on serious social issues which are affecting large numbers of our borough’s residents.

We are especially grateful for your coverage of housing issues in Islington with 14,000 on the council housing waiting list and thousands of others paying exorbitant rents and or living in overcrowded, insanitary conditions.

Your readers will be aware that IHfA have focused on the urgent need for housing at council rents in the borough in the context of the planned future homes on the former Holloway Prison site and the loss of existing council-rent homes with the sales of street properties by housing associations.

A third key challenge of Islington’s housing problem is the question of empty homes.

To our knowledge, there are 649 empty homes in the borough, all of which could be put to good use by housing homeless households.

Among these are 28 much-needed three- and four-bedroom family flats in Wellington Mews, next to Pentonville Prison, which have been empty for many years.

The Ministry of Justice, who own these flats, reneged on their proposed leasing to Islington Council for housing families in need and have now sought maximum profit through the sale of these public assets to LGP Wellington Mews Ltd, who have requested planning permission from Islington Council to “redevelop” them.

Public assets, property, and land, should be kept within the public sector for the good of the public. Instead we are seeing yet another example of a government department putting profit over public need.

On Saturday July 3 Islington Homes for All together will be organising a protest at 11.30am at Pentonville Prison to campaign for the resale of the Wellington Mews flats to Islington Council. Anyone concerned about the issue of empty homes in the borough will be very welcome to join us.

For more information, please see our Facebook page, get in touch by email at suzieb4109@protonmail.com or just turn up on the day.

We’d love to see you there!

JENNY KASSMAN
Islington Homes for All