Tenants appeal for £25m to bolster Islington transfer

Tenants of a troubled north london housing estate are pressing the government for an extra £25m to fund its transfer.

North British Housing, part of the Places for People group, has been shortlisted to take over the Tollington estate in Islington.

The estate has a negative value of £50m but North British will only get £25m to fill the gap. Of that sum, £24m will come from Islington council and £1m from single regeneration budget funds for nearby Finsbury Park.

The transfer can go ahead on the current funding but more money would allow more affordable homes to be built.

The pro-transfer lobby fear the funding gap could make tenants vote against transfer.

Theresa Coyle, chair of the Links Association, the estate's tenants' organisation, appealed to the government for more funding.

She said: "I think somebody somewhere has to help us. We do not want to give other residents the opportunity to say no."

Somebody somewhere has to help us. We do not want to give other residents the opportunity to say no

Theresa Coyle, Tollington tenants’ organisation

David Cowans, chief executive of Places for People, said: "If the estate has a negative value then who pays for that? Proper gap funding would allow us to build more new homes instead of refurbishing, and build more affordable homes."

Housing minister Keith Hill said he would consider the appeal. "I am here to listen and learn and take away requests like that and think about them," he said.

North British plans to demolish and rebuild 583 of the homes on the 1579-home estate and sell 340 others. The remaining homes will be refurbished. Narrow alleyways, which have become magnets for crime, will be gated off.

Islington and Tower Hamlets councils are lobbying the government for gap funding to complete five transfers.

The Market estate in Islington has a negative value of £14m. The council has put in a £5m dowry but the transfer needs another £9m. Chris Worby, Islington's assistant director of housing, said the gap could be cut, but not eliminated, by building more homes for sale. He is meeting Wendy Jarvis, head of the ODPM's local authority housing finance division, to ask for funding.