We ran this story in the Sunday Express today. For legal reasons, I’m going to pre-approve all comments for this thread. Please keep comments generalised, eg you can talk about general policy and internal controls of housing list allocation, but nothing specific will be allowed on this particular case. Other examples will be allowed so long as no names or full addresses are mentioned.
If anyone has any more information about Mohammed Chowdhury, both in regard to his arrest and his background, as well as how he came to live in Stanliff House, can you please email me via this blog. Thanks.
By Ted Jeory
A ROW has erupted over how a man accused of plotting to blow up Big Ben was able to live in a luxury London flat, courtesy of his local council.
Mohammed Chowdhury, 20, mingled with some of Britain’s wealthiest bankers while living in his £250,000 home near Canary Wharf in Docklands.
The one-bedroom flat, in the Stanliff House apartment block on the Isle of Dogs, is owned by the Toynbee Housing Association .
The flats are reserved for people on the lengthy housing queue of the East London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Chowdhury is believed to have lived there on a special “social tenant” rent for about a year.
During his time there records show he voted twice by postal ballot, once in the General Election in May and again in a controversial poll to elect a mayor for Tower Hamlets in October, when the turnout was just 26 per cent.
Last night, however, local councillors expressed concerns about how a young single man was able to get to the front of the borough’s housing list.
Tower Hamlets Borough Council declined to comment on the matter, but the housing association said that when the authority had allocated properties, it had merely checked a prospective tenant’s ability to pay the rent.
Fears have also been voiced that flats doled out to allegedly needy individuals have then been sub-let as part of a social housing property scam.
Conservative councillor Peter Golds said: “This property is in one of the most sought-after developments of the borough. If he is the legal tenant, how did he rise up the housing list when I am told many applicants are expected to sleep in living rooms or share rooms with siblings of a different gender?”
Neighbours said Chowdhury was a “polite and friendly” student. Last Wednesday, just two days after he was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, his bicycle remained locked in the communal corridor and his flip-flops were on the mat outside his door.
Only the large dent in his front door showed that police had battered their way in just before 5am on December 20.
A neighbour said: “I didn’t know him, but he was friendly. He used his bike a lot. I think his sister used to come and visit him and they would go for prayers.”
She said she did not know where he went to pray but the large East London Mosque – outside of which supporters of hate cleric Anjem Choudary and Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir regularly distribute anti-Western leaflets – is only a few minutes’ bicycle ride away.
A little further away is the railway arch storage depot in Bethnal Green, which was exposed in last week’s Sunday Express as the HQ for Anjem Choudary’s pro-Caliphate campaigns.
Chowdhury and eight other men accused of plotting to commit terrorist attacks are due to appear at the Old Bailey on January 14.
Trial by Jeory 
Sometimes young single men do move quickly through the queue, especially if there are urgent medical or other circumstances. Others will have virtually no chance of getting an allocation.
Housing is such a painful subject for so many people in Tower Hamlets. I can’t bear to think there could be corruption in the allocations – how could the systems allow that? More likely he was housed for a good reason, such as that he was (obviously) highly vulnerable.
Ted Jeory, is the Sunday Express telling us that “some of Britain’s wealthiest bankers” mingle with social housing tenants on the Island?
Yes this sadly is not the first time the council has handed over a permanent flat to a young single man with no kids! The council priorities 3 types of homeless applicants (1)pregnant women(2)heroine addicts(3)single bangladeshi mothers with an empty suitcase! Fair enough a pregnant woman on her own with no where to bring up her kid, but a herroin addict? I know of 2 herroin addicts in and out of rehab who are letting out their council flats! The social services only need provide them with a supporting letter stating they are vulnerable and they get handed over keys! What about getting off the drugs? As for Bangladeshi women with children turning up to 60 roman road with an empty suitcase and handful of kids this is basic practice in tower hamlets. The receptionist even pre quaify you by asking are you pregnant or expecting before asking you to even take a seat? Whats more alarming is that the Labour and former Labour Cllrs even give them supporting letters stating they have been kicked out of their homes and this is fast tracked! There are genuine people like myself with no fixed abode and sensible in the sense i do not have children or have ever taken drugs and yet we are the ones who end up moving out of the borough!! The council must review all those single men housed in the last 5 years and check who is registered to vote at these addresses, if they infact even live in these properties and also separated or divorced couples who are living in oversized properties despite living as a single person! no other London borough is in this mess or takes full advantage of council housing! Luftur Rahman what you going to do about this?
Sub-letting is a huge problem with social housing accross London. It’s very hard to find out when it’s happening – door to door checks can sometimes catch people out and intelligence-led systems that involve checking against other data (parking permit applications, say) can yield a few more – and is rarely a priority for local authority housing schemes.
TH’s allocations policy will be on the website and it may be that there is a small quota for people coming out of care or have some other form of vulnerability. Also, Ted, your story isn’t clear if he’s in social rented property or one of the discount market rent properties that sometimes get included in housing authority developments.
[SOME CONTENT REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS]
Ted, you are right to ask searching questions, it’s just a shame your writing style sometimes decends to the lowest common denominator, especially it seems when it concerns Muslims, but then you do work for the right wing press.
Your original titled piece in the Sunday Express was “MYSTERY OF TERROR PLOT SUSPECT’S LUXURY FLAT.” What is the great “mystery” Ted? As you note in your own article the flats are owned by Toynbee Housing Association. I assume other common folk also live in these “luxury apartments.”
It is also interesting to note that you totally disallowed all comments on your blog when you first reported on Terry Fitzpatrick’s arrest and subsequent court appearance. Why the differential treatment?
decends is incorrectly spelt should be deacends. ; )
As I said, Steve, I’m pre-approving all comments on this thread and allowing only those relating to the generalities of the issue. In Terry’s case, I hadn’t discovered the use of the pre-approval trick on WordPress, but even if I had, I still would have barred all comment: he’s much better known in the area and to the readers of this blog.
As for the “mystery”, I refer you again to the article. Cllr Peter Golds, for one, feels there are questions to be answered about that flat. I think his questions are legitimate. And this has nothing to do with being a Muslim or not.
LOL I can’t multi-task and write, it should be descends!
There are a couple of people you should look at in terms of housing allocation
1) a senior, white Labour party official (not a councillor) in tower hamlets who is a council tenant
2) How did [POLITICAL ACTIVIST’S NAME REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS] (who has a wife, one child and an elderly mother who doesn’t always live with him) get a two bedroom council flat?
3) how did [POLITICAL ACTIVIST’S NAME REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS] get allocted his nice new house in Blackwall
the comments you have allowed above are unacceptable
Ted,
Can u let us know the date and year when Mr Choudhury was re-housed in Isle of Dogs? I am intrusive to know because you are quite professional in your approach this time?
We don’t know. Neither the council nor the HA will say.
Why don’t you ask under FOI or ask your friend Peter Gold to do that? I am curious because of your sudden professionalism?
There would be a personal data exemption under FoI. Cllr Golds has asked the questions – that’s in the article.
If a family is overcrowded due to one extra person being in the house, if they’re willing, it makes sense to rehouse that one person in one of the many one bed properties that property developers love to build.
This means that the family is now no longer overcrowded and can lead to their removal from the housing list.
Now I don’t know if that was what happened here, but I don’t see why it’s a problem for the Council to house a 20yo single man. What should happen to them then?
PS. I’m a firm believer in Council housing being a right, and not just a safety net. Imagine what a better place the world would be if we all had a secure roof over our heads!