An admirably comprehensive briefing from council staff at last week s St Pancras and Somers Town area forum outlined just how desperate is the need for housing not just in this ward, but across Camden. There were 195 affordable homes built last year, a

An admirably comprehensive briefing from council staff at last week's St Pancras and Somers Town area forum outlined just how desperate is the need for housing not just in this ward, but across Camden. There were 195 "affordable" homes built last year, and given that there are just under 16,000 households on the waiting list, and the population is predicted to grow by 20% over the next decade, it is clear that the numbers just don't add up.

In St Pancras and Somers Town alone, the council records that more than 250 households are overcrowded - yet we had only to look out the window of the British Library meeting room to see a soon to be vacant site that could certainly meet many of their needs - the three-plus acres known as Brill Place, or the British Library land.

So how can anyone be considering dedicating this valuable, rare resource to a medical research centre already located on a much-larger site? How could any government just have signed over the land, as the Labour government has, ignoring the council, and community's, highest priority, housing?

Natalie Bennett

Green Party, South Camden Coordinator