Axed: Haringey’s housing project hated by the Left
A COUNCIL riven by infighting between the Left and moderate wings of the Labour Party was tonight set to officially abandon the £2 billion housing project at the centre of the bitter split.
The Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) scheme was expected to be formally dropped at a meeting of Haringey councillors after months of protests from activists, who were backed by Jeremy Corbyn’s Momentum group.
The plans for 6,400 new homes, a school, library, health centre and new town centre in Wood Green led to the resignation of council leader Claire Kober, who claimed she faced sexism and bullying from the Left. Tonight the Labour group was due to put forward a motion at an “extraordinary” meeting of the council that will leave a decision on how to address the borough’s housing crisis to the next administration after elections.
The move was expected to win support from both factions of the party and bring an official end to the proposal which involved the council entering into a partnership with private developer Lendlease. The next administration is likely to include a higher proportion of councillors drawn from the party’s Left-wing and, with the public backing of Mr Corbyn, they are expected to reject any move toward privatising public services.
The meeting, called by Haringey’s eight-strong Liberal Democrat group, will be the first time the borough’s 57 councillors have had the opportunity to vote on the housing plan. Part of the concern over the HDV was that it had previously only ever been ruled on by the council’s cabinet. Lib Dem councillor Liz Morris said: “The HDV is off the table because whatever the powers of the cabinet, they have clearly recognised the forces against them.”
More than 500 protesters were planning to march through the borough with security stepped up outside the council’s civic centre.
The demonstration was being led by the Stop HDV campaign, which was also awaiting the result of a judicial review into the housing scheme.
Resident Aaron Taylor said: “The area has been given a great chance to regenerate and that’s just been taken away.” The father-of-four described the end of the HDV plan as an “absurd victory” for campaigners as residents continue to live in houses that are “falling apart, have leaks in the roofs and burst pipes”. @KateProctorES