How the new block in Daleham Gardens will look

PLANNING chiefs have given the green light to a new model of social housing provision – including flats for sale with a 50 per cent discount.

The homes in the block in Daleham Gardens will be half of the going rate that properties are normally sold for in the heart of Hampstead.

The NW3 Community Land Trust saw councillors approve plans for a six-storey building on the site of a former council-owned block which was destroyed by fire seven years ago. Ownership of the land – in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods of Camden – has been handed-over to the trust by the Town Hall following the blaze in 2017 when a young woman died in what investigators said was an avoidable tragedy.

After Thursday’s planning committee meeting, architect Sanya Polescuk praised the council for working with the CLT on an “innovative model of affordable housing delivery”, adding: “We came into being to stop the exodus of people who could no longer afford to live in our area as it was becoming too expensive. We wanted to show that affordable housing needn’t be a misnomer in areas with high house prices.”

The CLT allocations set up will see six flats in the new building sold with the discount to selected members of the trust based on four categories: housing need, “financial position”, “local connec­tions” and community involvement.

There are currently 117 members. Under the scheme, homes – expected to be built by 2026 – can only be sold on by NW3 CLT members with the same discount still in place.

Two of the flats will be rented out to council tenants while the other six will be sold on the private market. While original building once had 15 council homes, it is understood just two had not been sold off under the Right to Buy scheme at the time of the fire.

Those who are offered the half-price homes will still require a deposit and a mortgage. A system has been set up where final allocations have to be approved by an external auditor.

The scheme – six years in the making – was approved despite criticism from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which had raised “serious concerns” about the scale of the development and its impact on neighbouring Gloucester House School.

Tavistock chief executive Dr Michael Holland said in his objection: “The children have complex histories and their emotional and behavioural challenges can be triggered by a variety of factors. Building works are a trigger for a number of the children who currently attend the school. Even undertaking minor repair works within the school, with simple activities such as drilling, has led to children becoming distressed and displaying aggressive behaviour to staff and to the builders.”

Resident Nora O’Mahony had warned the committee about the impact on the school and also the “overlooking and overshadowing” and “loss of green space” and “mature greens”, adding that the designs were “totally out of keeping with conservation area” and calling on the council to “send it back to the drawing board”.

Meredith Bowles, a director at Mole Architects, described the building as “well-designed and complimentary to the conservation area”.

Councillor Danny Beales, Camden’s regeneration chief who also sits as a voting member of the committee, said: “This is a site with a previous existing building with pretty much the same height and pretty much same use.”

He said there had to be a “reasonableness” when it came to complaints from residents and the school, adding: “After this tragic incident, something will be constructed.”

Fire tragedy

Camden Council was fined £500,000 last year in a criminal case brought by the London Fire Brigade over serious fire defects that led the death of a 35-year-old woman at 31 Daleham Gardens, writes Tom Foot.

Magdalena Fink, a paralegal, died in a blaze at her council-maintained block of 15 homes on November 21, 2017. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard how the Town Hall had failed to act on fire risk assessments that called for a new fire alarm system, replacement fire doors, and the removal of flammable timber cladding on the single escape route.

Magdelena Fink

The council pleaded guilty to charges in the case that sparked a follow-up probe by the government’s social housing watchdog.

The Regulator of Social Housing found that 9,000 fire safety actions are now overdue in homes owned by the council as they are not fitted with smoke alarms. Around 4,000 homes do not have a carbon monoxide detector fitted. Secretary of state for housing Michael Gove went on to criticise Camden in a letter to council leader Georgia Gould.

She hit back warning that government funding cuts were the reason fire safety checks were not being made on time.