• YOUR report on the unveiling of Westminster Council’s new life for Dudley House really did come straight from the council’s PR machine, (View in the heart of the capital, January 17).

Dudley House was originally built as housing for council tenants at social housing rents. It was allowed to deteriorate and was then used to house homeless families in temporary accommodation.

Much anguish at Westminster City Hall on what to do with a building in need of refurbishment and along comes a friendly developer.

And suddenly council flats transform into “affordable” homes, the council’s preferred term for housing that doesn’t use the word “social”.

So in essence what we actually have is a development, supported by the council, that robs housing from the thousands of families in need of secure, safe homes, and at rents they can afford. Seems to be a pattern at Westminster!

CLLR GUTHRIE McKIE
Labour spokesperson for Housing