Today a letter from the Green Party councillor Caroline Russell claimed that “the realities [of Islington Labour’s housing schemes] continues to fall far short of the rhetoric”.
Given the Green party’s significant record of campaigning against Labour proposed social housing consistently we felt it was important to highlight the role Islington Green Party plays when desperately needed housing is not built in Islington.
Most recent campaigns from the green party against housing developments include 66 social housing units in the Golden Lane Estate, 41 new homes in Dixon Clark Court (including 23 – over half – for social rent), 19 high-energy-efficient social-rent homes in the Wedmore estate, 415 social-rent properties in the proposed Holloway prison development, and 135 social rent properties in the Barnsbury Estate. A grand total of 676 vital homes opposed by the Islington Green Party.
On the 6th April 2018, a letter in the tribune from the Bunhill branch of the Islington Green Party argued that the development, which included 66 allocated social housing properties, would “squeeze out social housing”.
In March 2020 the Islington Green Party joined a protest against new council homes at Dixon Clark Court. Including a statement from Caroline Russell, the author in question of this week’s letter, which opposed the development due its impact on seven trees on the proposed site. Since 2022 alone, Islington Labour have planted 1,489 trees.
On the 12th July 2020, high ranking Tufnell Park Green party activist and multiple-time election candidate Rod Gonggrip opposed the new council homes at the Wedmore Estate, stating there was “no room for praise here”.
Between February and October 2022, Tufnell Park’s Green Party candidate for that election, Rod Gonggrip, described the Holloway prison development as “monstrous”, “a horror”, “Islington Labour’s pet project”, and even goes as far as describing Islington Councillors “selfish” for approving the housing project.
In December 2025 the leader of the Green Party opposition in Islington council failed to vote in favour of 135 new social rent homes on the Barnsbury Estate and was the only member of the planning committee not to do so.
Plans at the Holloway Prison Development and the Barnsbury estate were the two biggest schemes to provide housing in Islington for 30 years.
We at Islington Labour are acutely aware of the housing crisis faced in Islington and we are doing everything in our power to ensure that the 16,500 households waiting for social housing can receive a home of their own.