Brent to underwrite Northwick Park Spine/Access road with £10m Strategic CIL money

 

The Partnership Development site

 The new spine/access road (Download PDF HERE)

Brent Cabinet is expected to approve a £10m Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy underwriting of the new spine/access road to be built on the Northwick Park One Public Estate development. The money is required upfront for the road building but should, if conditions are met, be repaid from the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

The development is a partnership between Network Housing, University of Westminster, London North West Health Authority and Brent Council. The Brent Council Highways Team will be responsible for the project.

The project as a whole is expected to raise  £19m CIL from developers.

It should be noted that the future of Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy are currently under review by the government.

OFFICERS REPORT

Brent NEU issues urgent appeal to Brent MPs and Council leaders on contagion dangers of full opening of nursery classes

 Continuing his hapless mismanagement of the education service during the pandemic, Gavin Williamson has changed guidance on the opening of nurseries from that initially sent out at the beginning of term.  The opening of school-based nurseries had initially been left to headteachers to decide and in schools open to only vulnerable and critical workers (the latter a widened category compared with key workers) it made little sense to open nurseries to all children and thus increase the potential of contagion.

The DfE has now issued guidance that nurseries should be full open.

 Brent NEU has written a letter to Brent MPs Barry Gardiner, Tulip Siddiq and Dawn Butler; Muhammed Butt leader of Brent Council and Cllr Tom Stephens lead member for schools asking them to intervene in what could be a life or death matter.

 

Dear Brent Councillors and MPs,

 

As you know, there is great pressure to open nurseries and special schools fully during this lockdown despite the fact that Sadiq Khan has today declared a major incident and school settings have been shown to be a major transmission factor with the new variant of Covid-19.

 

In Brent our nursery and special school headteachers have, as usual, put safety first, and resisted opening to increased numbers of children. As you know this is in line with the policies of all education unions, the NEU included.

 

However they are now being pressured to implement this government's shameless edict just at the moment that deaths and cases reach a record high, the virus is out of control, we hear of deaths of our workers every day and the NHS in London is at breaking point.

 

I'm afraid I have to be brutally honest with you here. I cannot morally bring myself to advise my members (when they write to me concerned that their settings are going to fully open to children and staff) that they must go into their school or nursery, because the reality is that I know that if I give this advice, some will subsequently become seriously ill or die. This is the reality.

 

I feel I have no option but to advise against this. However it is within the gift of the council and MPs to come out publicly and state that you will not require your schools and council officers, in Brent, to adhere to DfE advice where that advice contradicts with the evidence we have on safety, risk and the headteachers' own risk assessments.

 

With that in mind I am asking you now if you can offer this support? Of course, not only would this protect my members from harm but it would help halt the spread of the virus, help save hospital beds and also prevent the deaths of pupils, bearing in mind that children with learning disabilities are six times more likely to die from Covid-19.

 

I am happy to meet with any of you to discuss this further, or indeed, organise a public meeting so that you can hear the views of our Brent community on this.

 

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter, as soon as possible.

 

Jenny Cooper

 

Brent NEU Joint District Secretary.

Vice Chair, NEU National Health and Safety Organising Forum.

 

Meanwhile the National Governors Association (NGA) has drawn attention to the problem of more than the expected number of vulnerable and critical worker children attended school, undermining the intention of school closures to stop the spread of the virus. Boris Johnson had insisted both that schools are safe and should close as they are vectors for the spread of the new strain:

One of the main issues we are currently in dialogue with the DfE is on the number of children who are attending schools despite there being a national lockdown with a stay at home request from the Prime Minister with supposedly schools closed to most pupils: significant numbers of governing boards are reporting that they have between 40 and 70% of their pupils attending in strong contrast to the first lockdown.  We are also aware that there are particular challenges for special schools, alternative provision and those with large numbers of disadvantaged children, but it is helpful to make the case if we have your stories to bring the points alive.

 

Mail to: covidfeedback@nga.org.uk

Flagship project? On the curious case of Prospect House, NW10 7GH - guest article by Alison Hopkins

 

 Prospect House

Yesterday former Brent Liberal Democrat councillor, Alison Hopkins, published a thread of intruiging tweets on the goings on around Prospect House in Brent - a conversion from offices to accommodation.

Recently Brent Council has adopted a policy of opposition to such conversions as the resulting accommodation is often of poor quality and low space standards.

Alison has kindly given me permission to publish her the thread as a guest post on Wembley Matters.

It reminds me of a children's book I used to use in class: 'Why are there more questions than answers, Grandad?'

On the curious case of Prospect House, NW10 7GH. How flagship Brent Council/Shepherds Bush Housing Association housing project seems to end with evictions and very strange finances.

 

It starts with a story about nurse being evicted from social housing in Prospect House. Brent Council refuses to comment. ALL tenants to be kicked out by 23 May 2021. She's scared of temporary housing. I get that. But why the mass evictions by Brent? So, I dig. I like digging.

 

Find this, back in 2016. Shepherds Bush Housing Association & Brent Council proudly proclaim Prospect House converted to social housing paid for with lotsa cash from the Councils Empty Property Grants LINK   Leader and Mayor are there. It's FAB they say.

 

Link to publicity puff LINK

 

Apparently, office block owner Ashok Kumar Vohra contacted Brent. (This is all public domain stuff, btw.) He runs Sonal Trading who seem to refurbish ink cartridges. (!).  LINK. Seems to dabble in property development on the side.

 

Anyhow, perhaps this is all spiffy. But perhaps not: yes, this is Socialist Worker, talking about HEY, Prospect House!  LINK

All seems not well, despite the vast amount presumably spent on converting the offices to housing.

Now, we then look back at Sonal Trading & find it is a teeny company making not a lot of money, but yet had significant ownership by a Dubai based washing machine sales company from at least 2012. I do love Companies House.

 

In June 2020, the washing machine sales company seem to relinquish their holding and a new chap takes over 75 percent. Jagan Nath, who also seems to be Dubai based.This may all be irrelevant, but it's damn interesting if you've a mind like mine.

 

So, what happens next. By 2020, of course, the owners have had substantial rents. Let's say, oh, four years at £300 a week for 17 flats. Over a million? That empty property grant is, by the way, supposed to mean commitment of FIVE years social renting. Remember, December 2016.

 

The plot thickens. Still with me? Five years from Dec 2016 would be December 2021, yet the tenants are being evicted in MAY 2021. Hm. My suspicious evil mind kicks in again. Might there be a planning application.....?

 

Well, whoopie doo. Guess what happens in FEBRUARY 2017. Yup, three months after the presumed start of that FIVE YEAR commitment! This: 

Flats 1-17 INC and 18 Prospect House North

 

A planning application to add 4 storeys & redevelop Prospect House into 28 flats! It gets approved Oct 2018, DESPITE multiple breaches of policy. Yup, you guessed it: minimal affordable and minimal family accommodation. This is Brent, isn't it. Bear with me, I'm still going.

 

The officers report at para 15 makes cursory mention of the tenant decant costs, the cost of breaking five year lease & "repaying grants". That's the excuse used to justify not sticking with policy on affordable & family units.

 

There's also a throwaway about SBHA using units for "homeless" people. Yet, the existing tenants are being evicted, so will be homeless. Hm. The CIL amount is pretty low: £750K .

 

Oh and that CIL amount is BEFORE any reliefs for affordable units. The planning application was made by a company called Planning Co-operative in Ealing. Run by the former Brent head of New Investment & Policy & Projects.

 

Anyhow. The original conversion from offices to flats would now probably not get consent. I do know of other applications for the empty property grant related to offices which got bounced, too. Oddly, I can't find the original planning application.

 

So. We've tenants evicted from what seems to have become an unpleasant block rather fast. By a housing association. I can't find decant plans either.

 

We've a tiny company who had significant grants from Brent to convert offices to housing & lots of rental income. How much was the grant? Has it been paid back?

 

Why is Brent being so coy about commenting on Prospect House? How much due diligence was done? Why was there a redevelopment planning application almost as soon as the place was occupied? When did the pre application discussions happen?

 

Found the address, the place changed name & postcode. NW10 7SH. A chequered history: tried to convert to a college, then hotel. But the original successful application from offices to housing isn't there, so no financial details like CIL.

 

Now, there may be good reasons and explanations for evictions. I'd love to hear them. Transparency=good governance. The more I dig this, more convoluted it gets. I've my opinions on how planning is now manipulated.

Lone Star's £3bn sale of Quintain (developer of Wembley Park) shelved

Published on UK Homesearch LINK

US private equity group Lone Star has shelved the £3bn sale of its UK residential property company Quintain, blaming the worsening coronavirus situation. 

Formal bids for Quintain, which owns the Wembley Park development site, were due to be submitted later this month with the company expected to fetch about £3bn, said a person briefed on the deal.

A sale at that price would make the deal the largest ever in the UK’s rented housing sector. But the sales process was aborted after a dramatic spike in coronavirus cases prompted a third national lockdown.

“Lone Star has decided to terminate discussions because it’s crazy trying to do this deal now with the backdrop of Covid. It’s a huge asset, with a lot of financing involved,” said the person briefed on the deal.

The end of the sales process was first reported by React news. 

The 85-acre Wembley Park site in north-west London has planning permission for 8,000 rental homes, with 1,500 of those already built. As well as paying for the existing properties and the land, prospective buyers of Quintain would need to fund any further development on the site.

The company had attracted interest from three bidders: German fund manager Patrizia; Li Ka-shing-backed investment manager Long Harbour; and a consortium of investors behind Get Living, another major rental housing developer which owns the former Olympic Village in east London, said two people with knowledge of the process. 

But Lone Star pulled the deal after deciding it might complete a smoother transaction and for a better price once the pandemic had eased, said a banker advising one of the prospective bidders.

The banker said: “January 2021 is not the ideal time to execute a £3bn transaction in London which is based on a bunch of assumptions about [who will rent] homes, the future of retail and when Wembley Stadium might reopen. There are a raft of things which it would be difficult for a lender or an investor to take a view on . . . I can completely see why they would wait for a brighter day.”

It is the second time in a little over two years that the private equity firm has had a potential sale fade as it neared the finish line. In 2018, Lone Star came close to a sale to Get Living’s backers — Delancey, Oxford Properties, Qatari Diar and the Dutch pension fund APG — but the parties could not agree on a price. 

Lone Star, which took Quintain private in 2015 for £1bn including debt, will now continue to invest in the estate, developing the remainder of the planned apartments.

“Lone Star looks forward to continuing to work with the Quintain team to deliver on the next development phase for Wembley Park — with an another 850 units already under construction,” said the company.

 

Brent Climate Emergency Strategy - Zoom meeting for residents with a disability, January 13th 5-6.30pm

 From Brent Council Climate Emergency Strategy Team

 Brent Council is holding a virtual workshop to discuss its draft Climate Emergency Strategy. This event is being held specifically for residents with a disability, their carer(s) or a representative from an organisation that supports people with disabilities and/or carers. Below is the invitation to the workshop, which has also been sent out via the Disability Forum. Please send this on to anyone you feel may wish to attend:

Brent Council is working on a plan to tackle climate change in Brent. Climate change is happening because the planet is being damaged. This plan will be called the ‘Climate Emergency Strategy’.

Brent Council are currently asking all residents what they think of the plan. Brent Council also want to ask if anyone has any ideas about what else the council could do about climate change. This draft plan is being put into easy read.

Brent Council has arranged a Zoom meeting to discuss the draft plan. This meeting will be called a workshop. It will take place on:

Wednesday 13th January 5pm – 6.30pm on Zoom.

The easy read plan and a Zoom link to the meeting will be sent around before the workshop for those that would like to attend.

Please send an email to climateemergency@brent.gov.uk if you would like to receive the easy read plan and attend the Zoom workshop. 

Also if you would like to join the Brent Climate Emergency Planning Group and get involved in shaping Brent's approach to the Climate Emergency, you can sign up here:  https://www.mutualgain.org/brent-climate-emergency-planning-group-registration-form/

Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest numbers in London

 From the Mayor of London

Last updated:  Wednesday 6 January at 9am

On 5 January 2021 the daily number of new people tested positive for COVID-19 in London was reported as 14,700. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported up to 5 January 2021 in London is 438,497.

In the most recent week of complete data, 25 December 2020 - 31 December 2020, 87,045 people tested positive in London, a rate of 971 cases per 100,000 population. This compares with 74,967 cases and a rate of 836 for the previous week.

For England as a whole there were 547 cases per 100,000 population for the week ending 31 December 2020.

On 4 January 2021 there were 6,733 COVID-19 patients in London hospitals. This compares with 4,957 patients on 28 December 2020.

On 4 January 2021 there were 814 COVID-19 patients in mechanical ventilation beds in London hospitals. This compares with 556 patients on 28 December 2020.

On 5 January 2021 it was announced that 120 people had died in London hospitals following a positive test for COVID-19. The total number of people who have died following a positive test for COVID-19 in London hospitals up to 5 January 2021 is 8,766.

BBC announce curriculum-based learning on CBBC, BBC 2, Red Button & BBC iplayer from Monday January 11th

 

Following pressure on social media over the weekend, as the focus moved to children unable to access on-line learning durign school closures, the BBC has announced a programme of curriculum based learning.

The BBC announcement

Reacting quickly to the news of UK schools moving to remote learning, the new offer from the BBC will ensure all children can access curriculum-based learning, even if they don’t have access to the internet.

Starting on Monday 11 January, each week day on CBBC will see a three-hour block of primary school programming from 9am, including BBC Live Lessons and BBC Bitesize Daily, as well as other educational programming such as Our School and Celebrity Supply Teacher and much loved titles such as Horrible Histories, Art Ninja and Operation Ouch.

BBC Two will cater for secondary students with programming to support the GCSE curriculum, with a least two hours of content each weekday.

Content will be built around Bitesize Daily secondary shows, complemented by Shakespeare and classic drama adaptations alongside science, history and factual titles from the BBC’s award-winning factual programming units.

Bitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on BBC Red Button as well as episodes being available on demand on BBC iPlayer.

Tim Davie, BBC Director General, says: “Ensuring children across the UK have the opportunity to continue to follow the appropriate core parts of their nation’s school curriculum has been a key priority for the BBC throughout this past year.

“Education is absolutely vital - the BBC is here to play its part and I’m delighted that we have been able to bring this to audiences so swiftly.”

This TV offer sits alongside a wealth of online content which parents, children and teachers can access when and where they need it:

• For primary, BBC Bitesize online has an expanded offer of structured lessons in Maths and English for all year groups - these can be used at home or in the classroom. ‘This Term’s Topics’ also covers other curriculum subjects and curates learning content that works for the Spring curriculum. This content can be easily incorporated into a learning plan or used to explore different topics at home. Visit bbc.co.uk/bitesize, click on the year group and subject and all the content is there.

• For secondary pupils, Bitesize is also home to two-week learning packs for English and Maths in KS3 (years 7, 8 and 9) as well as This Term’s Topics for other subjects to be used at home or to support teachers in the remote classrooms.

• For students in Years 10 and 11, the Bitesize GCSE offer allows students to pick their exam board and subject to find everything they need to help with their studies. Visit bbc.co.uk/bitesize/secondary for details.

Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, says: “The BBC has helped the nation through some of the toughest moments of the last century, and for the next few weeks it will help our children learn whilst we stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

“This will be a lifeline to parents and I welcome the BBC playing its part.”

Educational content for all nations will also be available.

UPDATED with Cllr Georgiou's reply - Asda responds to complaints that their Wembley store is not Covid safe

 

Cllr Anton Georgiou has received a response to his complaint that its Wembley store is not safe in terms of enforcing Covid safety measures such as mask wearing and social distancing. Cllr Georgiou said that the store was putting its customer and staff at significant risk. LINK

I leave readers to decide whether the answer is satisfactory and will publish any reply that Cllr Georgiou passes on to Wembley Matters,

 

Hello Councillor Georgiou

 

Thank you for speaking with me on New Years Eve, I hope you were able to celebrate the new year safely.

 

Since the start of the crisis, our highest priority has been keeping our customers and colleagues as safe as possible in line with the latest Government guidance.

 

All colleagues were encouraged to wear face coverings when in our stores and were provided with masks. With the new update all colleagues will be wearing a face covering, who are able to do so. 

 

We have also implemented Marshals at the entry to our stores to offer face masks for customers to use if they have forgotten theirs and they are also monitoring the volume of customers entering our stores to ensure the volume of customers entering the store is not near the maximum total.

 

By asking colleagues to confront members of the public who are not wearing a face covering, it can lead to situations where they are subject to verbal and physical abuse. We have a responsibility to protect the welfare of our colleagues, so encourage them to intervene only when they feel it is safe to do so.

 

I should emphasise we are continuing to maintain our other social distancing measures, including limiting the number of customers in store (well below the usual occupancy level) and having regular reminders on the need to maintain distance. This is done via extensive signage and colleagues wearing t-shirts emphasising the need to distance. There is also hand sanitiser and disinfectant available to all customers. Our social distancing measures are monitored by store leadership and our regional compliance teams. If government guidance changes, we are able to adapt quickly to it.

 

We have put in place increased cleaning protocols, further reduced the customer limits and have supported our vulnerable colleagues by moving them to roles in the store with less customer contact.

 

I have also raised yours and your constituents concerns to the General Store Manager to ensure customers are abiding to the guidelines, whilst in our stores and any abusive behaviour from customers will not be tolerated.

 

If there is anything in the future I can assist with, please feel free to contact me directly. 

 

Many Thanks and Stay Safe

 

Elliott

 

Asda Executive Relations

 

Today (January 7th), Cllr Georgiou replied:

Whilst I am pleased to read about the safety measures that are supposedly in place at present, I am unconvinced these are being strictly followed in the Wembley store, hence my initial complaint to you. Following my report and posting on social media about the experience I had in the store, several Brent residents have responded to outline similar concerns and worries. The latest being yesterday.

 

In our phone call, I requested that you outline what specific changes Asda will be making to guarantee safety for customers and staff at the Wembley store. Could you please let me know what changes you plan to make, as I fear that the current strategy simply is not working.

 

I look forward to hearing from you. Keep safe.

 

Anton

 

Cllr Anton Georgiou

Liberal Democrat Councillor, Alperton