London: A five-bedroom council home in west London associated with jailed extremist preacher Abu Hamza is reportedly set to receive improvement works costing around £70,000, sparking criticism over the use of public funds. The Edwardian-era property in Shepherd’s Bush, where Hamza’s eight children were raised, is reportedly worth around £1.7 million. Planned improvements include new windows and doors, solar panels and loft insulation.
Hamza, 68, is currently serving a life sentence at the high-security ADX Florence prison in Colorado, the United States. His wife, Najat Chaffe, 67, is the only person registered as living at the property. She moved into the house in 1995 after claiming that she and Hamza had separated. Under the terms of her longstanding tenancy, she has the right to remain in the property.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council is responsible for maintaining the home. The council has reportedly said that it is legally required to maintain its housing stock and that the Shepherd’s Bush property is one of around 1,000 homes included in a wider improvement programme. Planning permission for the proposed work has been submitted but has not yet been approved. The improvements are expected to be completed before the end of the decade if the plans proceed.
The proposed spending has drawn criticism from the council’s Conservative opposition leader, Jose Afonso. He questioned the decision to carry out extensive improvements to the five-bedroom property while thousands of people remain on the borough’s housing waiting list.
The house has been the subject of controversy before. In 2012, the council asked Chaffe to move to a smaller property, arguing that the five-bedroom home was too large for the number of people living there. At the time, more than 10,000 people were reportedly on the borough’s housing waiting list. However, Chaffe was able to refuse the move under the terms of her existing tenancy.
Abu Hamza, a former preacher at Finsbury Park Mosque, was jailed in the UK in 2006 for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. He was later extradited to the US. In 2014, he was convicted in New York over his involvement in a plot to kidnap tourists in Yemen and a conspiracy involving a terrorist training camp in Oregon. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.
The latest controversy centres on the planned renovation of the London property and whether the proposed expenditure should be viewed as routine council housing maintenance or as an inappropriate use of public money.
