CAMDEN: BOROUGH OF OUCKDR

Workers Press no. 1013, 5 March 1973 · scan page 12

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Camden has become one of the favourite areas in London for property developers and speculators looking to make a quick profit out of housTaking full advantage of 'improvement grants' from the local council, they have turned workers out of existing property and sold modernized flats for tens of thousands of The process reached a point this month when it discovered an old house been converted into flats sold for £112,000.

Of the £75,000 profit made by the developer concerned, £9,000 was in the shape of grants from Camden.

Said Arthur Soutter, Labour councillor and housing committee chairman: "Camden is a very trendy place to live and it is popular with IV producers and actors.' The grant system had sulted in Camden tenants ing removed and their proved homes being sold middle-class people from ‹ side the borough. ing.

pounds.

high was had and rebeimsutCamden had provided perty owners with over in improvement grants in the past two years. In mid-1972, only one-third was going to owner-occupiers, while the rest went to property companies and other non-resident owners.

In the case of an average Camden house being converted into flats and sold for about £19,000, the owner would, in effect, be provided with all his profit-about £2,400—at the taxpayer's expense, since this would be the size of the grant.

Evidence had come to light, said Cllr Soutter, where working-class tenants had been offered inducements to leave so the property could be redeveloped. He regarded such payments as harassment.

The council was now doing its best to impose stringent conditions with the grants, giving Camden the right to say who lived in the modernized As a result the number of applicants for grants—introduced as a concession to landlords and property men by the Wilson government in 1969— had slackened off considerably.

Tory Minister of State at the Home Office, Mark Carlisle, has told senior police chiefs that despite 'encouraging' recruitment over the last two years, the force was still pro£2m 11. -Press.

THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY ....months.