Haringey Council is being urged to rethink its proposed joint venture (JV) partnership with developers Lendlease.

The council is planning to establish the JV as part of a £2 billion regeneration programme to build 1,300 new homes and 500 shops on the Northumberland Park Estate.

However, union Unite said the project will see thousands of tenants removed from their homes and the entire site redeveloped.

According to Unite, the scheme is particularly controversial due to Lendlease carrying out similar project on the Heygate estate in Southwark. When the project was completed, Unite claims many of the former tenants were unable to return to their homes and were dispersed to areas outside of London.


The union also slammed the company over its blacklisting activities. The developer and its predecessor company Bovis were involved in the Consulting Association blacklisting scandal which resulted in 3,213 construction workers "having their lives ruined".

Ahead of a meeting with Haringey Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee about the blacklisting activities of Lendlease, Unite assistant chief of staff Adrian Weir said: "Lend Lease were blacklisters and breached building workers' human rights – the right to be active in your union. In the absence of other sanctions, it is the view of Unite that blacklisters should not be rewarded with public contracts, particularly by Labour councils.

"Blacklisting is bigger than just damaging the individual worker – blacklisting is a form of collective intimidation. It sends out strong signals to everyone in the industry that if you stand up for your rights and the rights of others then sooner or later no construction employer will take you on."

(LM/MH)