• I HAVE just received my council tax bill and noted that Islington Council were seeking to justifying their increase by listing their previous achievements.

One of these was the fact that they have delivered 550 new homes in the past four years.

A quick check of the 2018 Labour manifesto says that they promise to “build” 550 new homes not “deliver”… 2018 Manifesto – Islington Labour Group – Islington Labour Party https://www.islington-labour.org.uk/2018-manifesto/

The council provide housing statistics each year to the government and this includes what they have built, sold, demolished etc. I went back over the figures* for the three years from 2018 (the 2022 figures are not yet out).

In the last three years Labour’s administration have built 142 houses and would therefore need to build 408 houses in their last financial year ending March 31.

This means they will have failed to hit their target as they’ve so far built only 26 per cent of the promised homes. Indeed the number of houses they demolished or sold was 188 – so they lost a third more homes than they built.

I then see that Islington Council announced on Tuesday that they are going to build 750 new council homes, but not until 2026/2027.

Maybe the council have realised that they are not able to build the housing needed, but to make a promise which will mainly occur after the next election is quite ridiculous.

*For the housing figures see: Local authority housing statistics data returns for 2020 to 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

IAN FEARNLEY, N1