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Haringey councillors vote to continue with development vehicle
Haringey Labour councillors have voted to continue the council’s work establishing the £4bn Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), in spite of a wave of deselections.
In a vote by the local Labour group last Tuesday, councillors narrowly voted against a motion calling for a halt, according to a source at the meeting.
The council proposes to transfer a large quantity of public land into the HDV, which would be jointly owned by Haringey Council and Lendlease and could have a future value of £4bn.
It has been met with opposition in the borough, and 20 pro-HDV councillors, including Alan Strickland, cabinet member for housing, have been deselected – meaning they will be unable to stand in local elections later this year.
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The pre-election ‘purdah’ period, in which no key decisions can be made, begins on 26 March, but anti-HDV councillors are concerned that the council could sign the HDV contract before then.
The motion put before Labour councillors argued that, after the deselections, “no incoming administration after May 2018, regardless of the electoral outcome, will proceed with the HDV and will likely move to immediately halt it”.
The source told Inside Housing that the vote went against the motion by 24 votes to 22, with 19 deselected councillors voting against.
Another source said Tim Gallagher – who was also deselected – voted for the motion and said that although he supported the HDV, he recognised that there was no political appetite for it.
Claire Kober, leader of the council, is understood not to have confirmed at the meeting whether she plans to sign the HDV contract if the council wins its current legal battle over the proposal.
In addition, 35 Labour Party candidates standing in Haringey in May’s council elections have signed a letter to Ms Kober, telling her they plan to oppose the HDV if they are elected.
The letter reads: “With the elections so close, the legal challenges to the HDV, and the clear positions against it taken by both Tottenham and Hornsey and Wood Green [constituency Labour Parties], any attempt to advance it, sign contracts, or incur any additional expense would be detrimental to the interests of Haringey.”
Haringey Council declined comment.
