ANGER OVER £2M PAD

A COMPULSIVE hoarder is paying £14-a-week to live in a £2million council house.

Alan Newman, 70, resides in the four-storey terraced pad in a desirable part of the capital.

The house is a stone’s throw from X Files star Gillian Anderson’s mansion.

The building is currently a three-bed house but could be converted into a six-bed property or four £500,000 flats.

The average house price for the street in Islington is £1.3m and a one-bed flat sold for £590,000 last year.

According to the 2011 census, Islington was the most densely populated part of the UK.

Alan has crammed the property full of items he has collected while wandering London over the past 50 years.

It includes cigarette packets, postcards, board games, paintings, football stickers, bags, gloves, McDonald’s tomato ketchup pots and videos. Despite the chronic shortage of social housing, Alan does not want to leave the building. He said: “I like living here and I know everybody around the area.” He has lived in the house with his younger brother, 69, for about 50 years. They originally moved in with their parents and elder brother, who have now died. Alan says he gets benefits and only pays £14-a-week. He also claims to pay about £20-a-month in gas and electric. Britain is facing a housing crisis and the under use of the home has caused fury. One woman said: “They should be moved and someone who’s going to properly use the huge house should move in.” An Islington Council spokesman said: “We have a successful scheme to help residents downsize to smaller homes where this is appropriate, which then frees up larger homes for families in dire housing need.”