The Metropolitan Police own the land where the estate is built.

Muswell Hill families facing eviction due to ‘Met Police greed’

by Tim Lamden Friday, September 21, 2012
7:00 AM

Residents set to be evicted from a Muswell Hill housing estate by the Metropolitan Police have accused the force of preparing to destroy a community for “the sake of greed”.

All 22 families living on the estate in Connaught Gardens – which includes 16 flats and six houses – were served with eviction notices in July by Crown Housing Association, which runs the estate on behalf of the Met, who own the land.

The families, many of who have lived on the estate for two decades, have been given various dates for eviction throughout October.

They insist they have nowhere else to go after Crown Housing Association told residents they had no alternative accomodation to put them in.

Resident Caroline Gallagher, 45, said the Met was planning to “bulldoze” the estate and sell the land to property developers.

She added: “They are saying they have to do it but they don’t have to do it, they just need the money.”

Eve Dixon-Pollard, 39, who lives on the estate with her two daughters, said: “It leaves us homeless. Crown Housing are saying they have no properties to rehouse us in so they are just dumping us on Haringey Council’s doorstep.

“With the current climate of social housing in London, it is unacceptable and unforgivable this lovely community is being destroyed for the sake of greed and profit.”

Nick Wood, Crown Housing Association’s chief executive, said the company’s lease of the land expires at the end of the year and they are “required to take this action” by the Met.

He insisted that the company is unable to rehouse the families as they specialise in housing for the elderly and have “only one family house in London and that is occupied”.

A spokesman for the Met said: “We will work closely with Crown Housing Association to ensure arrangements with current occupiers before we proceed to market.”