£70M Price tag for Islington Businesses

The Islington Gazette just has a further story on the continuing developments in the Council Sell-Off of a large swathe of their commercial properties.

ISLINGTON Council's £45million portfolio of 222 shops, warehouses and charity offices is set to be sold for almost £70million to property investment company Structadene.

Many leaseholders are still hoping to buy their own premises - even though a number of the 159 traders who had hoped to purchase now need to raise hundreds of thousands more than they were expecting. Structadene has told the council how much it is offering for each property in the portfolio and, in order to buy, leaseholders need to price-match this figure.

As we discussed on our site back in February, the tenant businesses were originally looking to be offered the right to purchase. Now we need to ensure that as much as possible neither the Council is deprived of revenue nor that are our local businesses are adversely affected.

We need to ensure that the Right to Buy for the tenants is as transparent and a fair a process as possible. We also need to check that the Council does not squander the monies it raises, and we will do all we can to find out how this money is 'reinvested' into our Borough!

Islington Council Sell Off

As previosuly mentioned on here and our main website, Islington Council are selling off large swathes of business premises. The Islington Gazette has further information on the sale, including the list of included properties.

Local traders on the whole agreed with Islington Conservative Party's policy on this very important issue: of allowing the traders the Right to Buy.

David Scotcher, of David Scotcher Interiors in Upper Street, said: "We haven't got a problem with the council selling off as long as we get the option to buy in a fair way. We've been here more than 20 years."

George Hussein, who has three businesses in Central Street said: "Small businesses like this take a lot of dedication and are the backbone of the community."

I was most impressed by the fact that Islington's Labour councillors will call for traders to be offered first-refusal on their properties. I am now waiting for Islington Labour councillors to call for all residents in Islington council properties to be offered the right to buy their own properties as well, although seeing the way HfI has managed the exisiting Islington leaseholders, you would perhaps want them to buy the freehold as well!

The Great Sell-Off

Islington has been afire with the news of the Council's plans to sell two hundred of its freeholds to finance its spending on schools, regeneration and home building programmes, a portfolio said to be worth about £45 million.

We have been covering this story on our main website since the first news broke. Our Nick Canty attended the explosive South Area Meeting on Monday night- his report is soon to be posted. Traders on Amwell Street have taken out a full page advertisement in today's Islington Tribune, warning that a wholescale sell-off will result in increased rents, breakdown of communities, and the loss of shops and services.

Meanwhile, the Council has been blasted for its £5 million bill for external consultants last year, a 150% increase from 2001. Islington is one of the biggest spenders on schools in the country but remains one of the worst-performing boroughs for education in the UK - last week, it was revealed that 96% of children at the Clerkenwell Parochial C of E school failed to meet the Government's writing targets. Homes for Islington is hitting leaseholders with bills of up to £41,000 for what is claimed to be years of underinvestment in our estates. So is this the real reason why they want to sell off these properties?

In any case, please help our neighbours and local businessmen in their efforts to buy these freeholds, remembering the great Conservative tradition of supporting communities by giving council tenants the right to buy their properties instead of selling to faceless developers. Here's what you can do:

• Visit www.amwelltraders.wordpress.com for more information about the impact of this sell-off on Amwell Street and sign their petition.

• Write to your local councillor and to the local newspapers.

• Attend your local area meeting:
• North Area Committee Meeting: February 13, 7.30pm, Archway Campus
• East Area Committee: February 13, 7.30pm, Resources Centre, 356 Holloway Road

Please use the comments section to let us know your thoughts and experiences about this sell-off!