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Labour blasts claim they 'saddled' the borough with high-rises (From Enfield Independent)
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Labour blasts claim they 'saddled' the borough with high-rises
2:14pm Tuesday 2nd June 2009
A LABOUR councillor has hit back at the Conservative party for laying blame for a glut of poor-quality high-rise flats.
In an interview with the Independent on how long it would take to bring a fifth of the borough's housing stock up to standard, housing cabinet member Matthew Laban said last week: “Our predecessors saddled us with a lot of high-rises that are very costly to renovate with lifts that are very costly to run.”
However, housing scrutiny panel chairman Achilleas Georgiou said: “For a good part of the last seven years he, as cabinet member for housing, has been at the helm of council housing in the borough.
"Apart from eight years from 1994 to 2002, Enfield has been administered by the Conservatives since the
mid-Sixties. They have got to take responsibility for those years.
"For Matthew Laban to say they have inherited all those things is to wash their hands of them.”
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dons24pelliparclose, Enfield says...
6:21pm Wed 3 Jun 09
During the 1960s, new 'system build' construction methods as used on the Ladderswood Estate were introduced and heights rose to 27 storeys. In 1965, Local government reorganisation injected new drive into London's slum clearance and re-housing programmes. However in May 1968, a corner of Ronan Point, a 22-storey tower in Canning Town collapsed, killing five people and injuring 17. The Ronan Point disaster acted as catalyst for the anti-tower block backlash. Political control changed on Greater London Re-organisation from having 3 Borough Councils to Labour Party taking the political control of LB Enfield and being in charge for 4 years from their election in April 1964. There were often promising capital financial benefits for any local authority from building "high rise". But the "high rise" flat blocks incur high maintenance costs