Islington Council is considering whether to declare 14 buildings and plots surplus to requirements, including a former day centre, a dilapidated community-use building and premises occupied by a support organisation. The Executive is due to consider the proposal on 22 October. No properties have been sold, and the meeting would be asked to authorise the next steps towards individual disposals rather than approve completed sales.
The schedule covers 13 sites in Islington and a row of garages in Barnet. Among the listed properties are Holly Hall on Blythwood Road, the former Drovers day centre on North Road, the Laycock Building and a shop unit at 48 Seven Sisters Road. Other entries include empty houses, former council offices, land used as a garden and part of the forecourt of the former Clerkenwell Fire Station.
The council reviewed potential alternative uses before recommending the sites for disposal. Those options included temporary accommodation, building new council homes, renting the properties for income and community or social use. None of those options was considered workable for the listed sites. In some cases, building homes was judged not viable. A proposed joint housing scheme at Drovers with the neighbouring Goodinge medical centre had been abandoned on viability grounds.
The council’s case for selling is also financial. Empty property can bring ongoing costs, including business rates, security and safety checks. Earlier sales of unused land and under-used commercial property raised almost £25 million and are projected to save more than £2 million a year. Estimated values for the 14 current sites remain in a commercially sensitive appendix rather than the public papers.
How any proceeds could be used depends on which council account owns each property. Nine sites are held in the Housing Revenue Account, which is ring-fenced for council housing; four are in the general fund, while the account for one site is still marked to be confirmed. The proposal would use housing-account receipts to buy family-sized homes, with the aim of reducing the cost of temporary accommodation. The proposed purchases assume an average price of about £475,000 for a two-bedroom home.
For four general-fund sites, the proposed use is to reduce borrowing and the interest costs that follow. Using £1 million of sale proceeds instead of borrowing is projected to save about £83,000 a year, or £4.1 million over 50 years. These are financial projections, not proceeds already received from the proposed disposals.
Several entries have specific circumstances. At 7 Newington Barrow Way, a GP surgery occupies the first floor under a lease. The proposed sale would protect the surgery and planned public health use of part of the building. At 48 Seven Sisters Road, Streets Kitchen uses the ground floor on a temporary basis. Suitable alternative premises would need to be found through work with the council, but no replacement site or timetable has been identified.
Sotheby Mews is proposed for a long lease to the NHS for a new medical centre, with Miller General Practice expected to move there. That arrangement remains dependent on planning permission and funding. The Laycock Building is expected to become vacant this autumn.
If councillors agree to declare the sites surplus, officers could appoint agents and lawyers and handle each disposal separately. Most properties would be marketed openly, although the report anticipates that a particular buyer may be appropriate for some sites, subject to a formal valuation. Consultation requirements would vary: council tenants and local councillors must be consulted before housing land is sold, and affected households would be approached where a site is on an estate or affects access to homes. Any sale involving open space would require a two-week public notice and consideration of objections.
