Just two of over one thousand empty and unused homes in Haringey 

Two council flats in Bounds Green have been left empty by Haringey’s Labour run council and Homes for Haringey for years. One of the flats has been empty for five years and the other flat in the same building has been empty for nearly six years.

The two homes have been left empty for years whilst ten thousand families in the borough are waiting for a council home and many families are in overcrowded accommodation. The one-bedroom flat in Bounds Green has been left empty since June 2008 and the two-bedroom flat in the same house has been left empty since August 2007.

According to neighbours hoarding was put up by Homes for Haringey around two months ago but no work appears to have taken place. A notice on the hoarding says the work is due to be finished next month. Neighbours also claim that squatters have previously occupied the flats and the Labour council failed to act quickly to remove them and squatters in another building on the same road.

Lib Dem councillors are questioning the Labour council on:

• Why the flats have been left empty for so long?
• Why squatters were allowed to occupy the flats?
• Why the Labour council and Homes for Haringey have not either put in new tenants or sold the flats?
• Why so many other homes in the borough are empty?

It has also been uncovered by the Lib Dem opposition that another fifty-four council homes in the borough have been left empty for six months or more. The Lib Dem opposition have previously raised concerns about the large number of empty properties in the borough and called on the council to do more. The council flats are some of more than a thousand homes left empty and unused in Haringey.

The Lib Dems also submitted a budget amendment in February to build a hundred council homes which Labour councillors rejected, despite the large number of people on the housing waiting list and the fact no council homes have been built in Haringey since 1989.

Cllr Richard Wilson, Lib Dem Housing spokesperson, comments:

“This is absolutely disgraceful. The Labour leadership should not have allowed these council homes to have been left empty for so long when thousands of local people are on the housing waiting list desperate for a home.

“It just goes to show that Labour is incapable of using the resources they have properly. The housing crisis in Haringey will never be tackled with Labour in charge, they have had forty years to do something about council housing and for the last twenty-five they have failed to build a single council house. They even voted against our budget amendment to build a hundred council homes.

“It is time for change in Haringey so that things like the housing crisis can finally be tackled.”