Westminster presses for more key-worker units in disputed Dolphin Square

Head leaseholder Westminster council is hoping to transfer ownership of the 1200 flats in the block to freeholder Friends Provident. Friends Provident plans to offer nearly a third of all studio flats that become vacant during the next five years to key workers at reduced rents.

The council wants to conclude negotiations with Friends Provident in the next few weeks. But any deal will depend on the cooperation of the Dolphin Square Trust, which has a sub-lease from Westminster and has so far refused to negotiate with Friends Provident.

The trust was set up in 1963 as a housing trust. But it soon became a home for MPs, peers, barristers, judges, Westminster councillors and officers at rents as low as a fifth of market levels. The trust deregistered from the Housing Corporation in the 1980s.

Before the decision to end negotiations, Westminster identified 25 key workers who needed accommodation but could pay no more than £500 a month. Dolphin Square studios, when available, cost from £650 a month, one-bedroom flats cost from £950 and two-bedroom flats from £1270. There are 70 open-market flats vacant at present.

The Dolphin Square Trust said that under its current policy, two people would not be allowed to share a one-bedroom flat. However it did suggest that two people could share a two-bedroom flat, paying £500 a month each, with Westminster Council subsidising them by £150 a month each.

But Friends Provident has already offered to make 30% of all studio flats that become vacant over the next five years available to key workers at half market rents, and Westminster expects it can get Friends Provident to improve on that offer.

The council has warned the Dolphin Square Trust that unless a deal with Friends Provident can be agreed by the end of October, it will enforce its power to change the rent policy for all tenants.