Standing room only as the Tribune debate heats up

CANDIDATES clashed over building affordable housing and the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods policy as they took to the stage on Wednesday night for the Tribune’s election hustings.

With less than two weeks to go until voters go to the ballot box on May 7, it was standing-room only as residents packed out Nambucca in Holloway Road.

It is expected to be the most closely-fought election in more than a decade, as the Greens look to make significant gains in the borough.

Pundits are predicting that Labour will hold on to power in the Town Hall, but opposition parties are hoping that widespread dissatisfaction with the national government will help them pick up seats that have long been deemed un-winnable.

Election candidates at the Tribune’s hustings

The Liberal Democrats – who lost their remaining councillors in 2014 – have their eyes set firmly on St Mary’s and St James’, while the Greens are hoping to make gains in Tufnell Park, Clerkenwell, and Tollington among others.

Meanwhile, the Islington Community Independents, are running candidates in Finsbury Park, Laycock, Junction, and Bunhill, but splits in the group have undermined united campaigning efforts.

The Tories are not expected to make any inroads.

One of the hot topics of this election is housing and Labour and Green candidates have filled our letters pages over the past year with an ongoing debate over delivering affordable housing, with criticism coming that the Town Hall has scrapped social housing schemes, like the Finsbury Leisure Centre.

The Labour administra­tion in turn have blamed their inability to fulfil 2022 manifesto pledges to build 750 new social homes on wider financial pressures, and claimed the Greens have opposed certain schemes.

Una O’Halloran

A heated debate saw Green councillor Benali Hamdache argue that only 676 new council homes had been built in the borough since 2010, in comparison to 12,336 private homes.

“It’s delivering profit to a small cabal of developers that are getting richer every day and some of our councillors are having £2,000 per head curry nights with those developers, cosy conversations rather than actually looking at the alternatives,” he said, referencing a photo which showed Labour’s Shreya Nanda at an event with developers and housing secretary Steve Reed, who has recently lowered affordable housing require­ments to 20 per cent.

Cllr Hamdache added: “A green-led council would look at community land trusts, housing co-operatives, new ways to deliver housing that actually means that we’re delivering 100 per cent affordable housing for perpetuity.”

Benali Hamdache

“That is a load of tripe,” said council leader Una O’Halloran. “This council fights for 50 per cent affordable housing. No other borough fights like we do, for a small borough, under six miles, for social homes. I’m a council tenant, I know that we haven’t got the land. We have gone to the mayor, we have the big­gest buy-backs of council home under my watch.”

Terry Stacy, LibDem candidate for St Mary’s and St James’, described the figures as “shameful”, but said building would have been “difficult” for any political party and that he had “some sympathy with the pressures that basically Una has outlined and the frustration that you have”.

Ilkay Cinko-Oner

Independent councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner said the Town Hall should be insisting on 50 per cent of new homes being at social rent rather than the poorly-defined “afford­able”, and Nick Brainsby, Conservative candidate for Junction said the target should be reduced to incentivise building.

LTNs were the next divisive issue as the Tories – who last had a councillor elected in 1994 – are making this issue the cornerstone of their campaign.

Mr Brainsby said they would stop the introduction of any new schemes, and review the current ones “with a view to scrapping them in their entirety”.

The proposed LTN in Barnsbury and Laycock, which the Town Hall has recently “paused” after spending £600,000 in council staff time, consultants’ fees and publicity, came under scrutiny.

Nick Brainsby

Cllr O’Halloran was accused of making the U-turn on the unpopular scheme in a political move to win votes ahead of the election, despite Labour having been strong proponents of LTNs, and having pledged to introduce more Liveable Neighbourhood schemes if they win in May.

“It’s crystal clear from this conversation, from the tweets from Labour backbench councillors that this is a political decision that has taken the momentum out of delivering a much-needed transformation in the centre of our borough needs,” said Cllr Hamdache. “I take that a bit offensively,” retorted Cllr O’Halloran, adding the scheme had been stopped to further listen to residents’s concerns.

Terry Stacy

Summing up their bids to voters, Cllr O’Halloran made the case the Labour are a safe pair of hands that have a track-record of “delivering for the community”, while the Greens argue that it’s time to “turn the page on the two parties that have failed to govern this country properly for the last hundred years”.

The Tories claim that they are the “only pragmatic, sensible party in a sea of left-wing voices”, and deserve some representation, while the ICIs said they are “proud socialists” who “believe that the council should be run directly with residents at its core”.

The Lib Dem leader Terry Stacy – who dubbed Islington the “North Korea of north London” when Labour won 47 out of 48 seats in 2014 – told the audience: “If you deliver a result that gives no party overall control, that would be a wonderful challenge for Islington, because we might have to work together.”