London’s Haringey Labour council launches £2 billion privatisation
By
Thomas Scripps
4 February 2017
Labour councillors in the impoverished London borough of Haringey are pushing forward with plans to place £2 billion of public property into private hands.
To be finalised in April, the scheme will place the whole of Haringey’s public finances at risk, see thousands of council tenants thrown out of their homes and increase already unaffordable house prices in the borough. These events are a reflection of London’s ongoing process of social cleansing, in connection with the wholesale destruction of social and genuinely affordable housing to make way for high-value developments.
Haringey’s privatisation marks a new stage, whereby UK local authorities themselves—and all of the services they provide—are placed under private direction. Above all, the situation in Haringey is a vital political lesson in the pro-capitalist character of the Labour Party.
The driving force behind the privatisation programme is leader of Haringey Council, Labour councillor Claire Kober. She intends to establish a “Haringey Development Vehicle” (HDV), a private company half owned by the Council and half by a private developer. The Council will put up land to secure its share, which the developer will match with equity. The Council’s assets will be transferred to the HDV on long leases for a 20-year period.
To decide which developer Haringey Council would partner with, Kober was flown to a high-flying property fair at Cannes in France to discuss with various bidders. A shortlist was drawn up which includes Lendlease; Morgan Sindall with Affinity Sutton and Circle; Pinnacle with Starwood Capital and Catalyst.
Two of these corporations—Lendlease and Starwood—are represented by a…