Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey Civic Sell-off Stampede Continues with Latest Hornsey Town Hall Bid
Image: Salimfadhley on Wikipedia
In what's beginning to look like a pre-Christmas civic spaces sell-off stampede, following the £2bn sale announced last week, this week it has been revealed that Haringey are making their latest attempt to sell Hornsey Town Hall.
A contract notice published in the Official Journal of the EU, outlines a scheme cost in the range of £100m to £150m for the redevelopment of the site for mixed-use development, comprising the demolition of some existing buildings, conversion of retained buildings, and erection of new buildings for 123 apartments.
Bidders will be asked to provide proposals that facilitate cultural, community and other activities in the Town Hall that meet the council’s aspirations for the building.
An initial £10m needs to be spent to take the building off the English Heritage At Risk Register. That money will come from the development of the land to the rear of the Town Hall, with the same developer taking on responsibility for both the development of the land and the refurbishment of the Town Hall.
A planning condition links the development of the land to the rear and the refurbishment of the Town Hall in one project
The council is working with the Hornsey Town Hall Creative Trust, an independent buildings preservation trust set up in 2007 to promote the regeneration of the Grade II* listed Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End and to ensure continuing community access and use.
This sale, along with the one announced in Wood Green last week would see the town halls of all three of the boroughs that preceded Haringey sold off. I do hope that a public space will remain where local people can attend council and committee meetings should they choose to do so.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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It looks a little like a mini Tate Modern building. The conditions put on this development are restrictive for the normal developer but maybe something where a developer could work with a social enterprise, especially regarding the Hall/community access and use.
Sounds like a developer is being asked to profit from the 123 apartments by at least £10m and then effectively give that over for the Town Hall repairs but, not being able to develop the Hall for sale/lease as such unless it's for community use. How much profit do developers make on 123 apartments?
As far as creative social enterprise developers go Coin Street Community Builders on The Thames appear to be very good at both housing & community use development. They continue to build at the moment. But they are pretty unique in the UK I believe.
For leasing a space for community use as a social enterprise, such as the Town Hall, there seem to be a number of these set-ups over in Hackney/Tower Hamlets. Richmix is one example of a social enterprise on Bethnal Green Rd (although they are located within a new development) and provide space for all sorts of creative activities. They claim to cover most of their costs.
Maybe the Hornsey Town Hall Creative Trust & the council are thinking along these lines.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I think Berkeley make a little over £100K per apartment that they build (on average). Can't find it again in their latest results to link to, sorry. So that's about £12 million. Something's not right here. If a group of people on the Ladder got together and demolished their terrace and built a modern block of flats they'd make more than that.
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If that's correct then yes, something isn't matching up. There maybe some space within the Town Hall up for grabs ... a glass box penthouse or two on top of the Hall perhaps. There is the wing located above the Italian café Splazzo which would make for very nice apartments.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Crouch End folks could always tear a leaf out of the book of their Harringay counterparts and turn developer themselves. What these guys are doing is so impressive.
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Someone at the FT is suggesting that the kinds of developments being done in London and sold to overseas investors (for just the value of the deposit, off plan) might be reaching a peak...
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Those who express a view on HoL and elsewhere are opposed to what the Council are doing. The Council ignore them, considering them to be ill-informed and implicitly, wrong.
The Council operate largely in secret in most property matters, claiming 'commercial confidentiality', even though they have signed up to the Govt's Transparency Code, which explicitly expects that they stop using the confidentiality excuse. In this right-wing government's opinion, confidentiality simply doesn't work:
------------ from the Government's Transparency Code, which Haringey have signed up to ---------
Commercial confidentiality
20.The Government has not seen any evidence that publishing details about contracts entered into by local authorities would prejudice procurement exercises or the interests of commercial organisations, or breach commercial confidentiality unless specific confidentiality clauses are included in contracts. Local authorities should expect to publish details of contracts newly entered into – commercial confidentiality should not, in itself, be a reason for local authorities to not follow the provisions of this Code. Therefore, local authorities should consider inserting clauses in new contracts allowing for the disclosure of data in compliance with this Code
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Haringey have not inserted any clauses into new contracts as far as I know - they revel in confidentiality. They will not require the new owners of HTH to agree to letting the public know the details of what has been agreed, we'll have to get the info from press releases, statements of good wishes from the new buyer etc.
Why does this matter? Being kept in the dark and fed manure ('mushroom management') prevents us from generating ideas and initiatives that would help the situation - after all, we own the Council - they work for us.
Many Councillors and Officers are confronted with residents who clearly don't know the full facts - they see residents as well-meaning, but ill-informed. So Councillors and Officers try to show us the error of our ways by revealing snippets of facts and information but mainly by showing that they are privy to stuff the ordinary public aren't allowed to see.
So the Council's response to people who want to help is:
'trust us - we're doing this for your own good but can't reveal the details'.
It's not just Hornsey Town Hall - examples of this are all around the borough - the many groups pressing for better decisions will tell you more. Why can't the the wonderful people in the Wards Corner Coalition read every word that goes between Grainger PLC and LBH?
Why can't the Friends of Finsbury Park ever look at the contracts that turn Finsbury Park into an unwanted 'commercial surface', even years after they've finished?
Why did the Council spend four years drafting a secret lease for Hornsey Town Hall, a lease that will be held in secret for ever?
Why can't we look at the lease issued to the people making interim use of the Town Hall last year?
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So the contract evaluation process that will see the attempted sell-off of our 100% publicly-owned asset is surrounded in a secrecy deliberately and cynically imposed by the Property Services Department. They want to give a 'partner' a £150m opportunity and are prepared to accept £12m or less for it.
Property Services want rid of this white elephant at any cost so they call for bids and will accept the best one, even if that's way below it's real value. It's like selling your stuff on eBay with no reserve price - you might get a good price for it, but the likelihood is that someone will get your treasure for £1 - ouch!
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A big driver in all this is the Council's Property Services department - they are mostly seasoned property professionals themselves as far as I can see. As far as is possible in a council plagued by vicious government cuts and the resultant sackings, short-termism, job insecurity, overworking etc, they have no axe to grind and are doing what they think is best for our borough, even though few of them actually live here.
They seem to have outflanked councillors, putting them in impossible positions and hovering in the background saying - leave it to the professionals and you'll be 'safe'.
The last fiasco the Council presided over was Senior Councillors' fault - they made the decision in a secret, 'exempt' session to give HTH to a private school for £1/yr for 125 years. The value of the gift was many times the turnover of the school - a crazy decision that blighted our Town Hall for four years (2011 to 2014) until the School cynically walked away, keeping the £482k they were given to draw up plans for their own future but can't publish because they can re-use them for their next private project. The secret contract between our Council and a registered CHarity will remain secret in perpetuity (not even subject to any sort of 30 year rule). So, no chance for residents to cite evidence, to learn from the experience, to even read reports we paid to commission.
The same will happen with this attempted sell-off - we won't even be allowed to know who was turned down, let alone the contents of the winner bidders envelope.
The overarching cause we could all support is to stop the Council depriving us of the opportunity to make informed contributions to the future of our own borough.
Whilst the Council cling to the weapon of secrecy the Government themselves cite as counter-productive, the huge opportunity for a climate of open collaboration between us and those that rule us is missed.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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I discovered by accident yesterday that Apex House, still to receive planning permission for the 22-storey Grainger/Kober fantasy, is no longer owned by LBH. We are paying rent for the Customer Services centre, and they are being moved ASAP into the library as a result. Now in the discussions last July (2014) that threw us crumbs of info about the secret stitch-up between LBH and Grainger, probably agreed on that Arup yacht in Cannes, it was stated that Grainger would not pay their £3.4million to get their hands on the Apex site till they have planning permission.
So if LBH no longer owns Apex House, who does?
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Sounds like a perfect question for your local Councillor to ask on your behalf, Pamish. I don't see why anything about the Grainger deal should be confidential (one borough, one future!), yet under the present arrangements, the council are allowed to keep everything secret for ever, with no right for residents to examine them.
That default Council position of paranoid secrecy (a hangover from the Bernie Grant days I'd guess, when it was probably warranted - horrible tabloids were out to get them) is defensible when their peers agree, but even this Tory Government is officially saying it's counter-productive.
The advantages of openness are there for the taking (more eyes on the prize) but the Council need a big push to do anything 'not invented here' I suppose, particularly if the property professionals who advise them don't want it.
If only our Councillors had the vision to seize this chance to devolve power instead of rushing, trowells in hand, to cement the edifice that will eventually rain bricks on their heads because they refused to unlock this entrance :)
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