[from Hackney Gazette]
ESTATE FACELIFT HIT BY SLUMP
hg.editorial@archant.co.uk
27 November 2008
A £1billion masterplan to replace the crumbling housing stock in the north-west of the borough has been hit by the credit crunch.
The Gazette can reveal Hackney Council is to go cap in hand to the Treasury to ask for millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to revive the flagship Woodberry Down regeneration project.
Deputy Mayor Jamie Carswell said the local authority will ask the government for a slice of the £3billion made available in the pre-budget report this week to boost capital projects.
He said the cash was needed because the council’s partner in the first phase of the project, the property developer Berkeley Homes, has fears over the future of the housing market.
In a second blow, Cllr Carswell admits the housing market slump means companies have expressed “reservations” about signing up to deliver the second phase of the project.
Opposition parties have now questioned the project’s long-term viability.
