Harlow Labour Leader Mark Ingall has sent a letter to Harlow Conservative MP Robert Halfon and Conservative Group Leader Andrew Johnson demanding that the Conservative Party give back the £400,000 they received from a donor who profitted from Terminus House.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Robert Halfon MP and Cllr Andrew Johnson,

I know that you both share my concerns about the standard of housing provided at Terminus House. Robert once described it as a “a modern ghetto for the vulnerable”. I know that you both will also have been moved by stories of babies and toddlers with delayed development, not able to learn to crawl or walk, due to the very limited space available (3.5m x 5m) in many flats in this office block conversion.

I am sure therefore that you shared my shock at hearing that the Conservative party accepted £400,000 in donations from a man who profited richly from loans that enabled Caridon to buy and develop Terminus House and the appalling accommodation it offers.

I am writing to you to ask for your support in demanding that the Conservative party return this £400,000 donation. This money is tainted with the misery it has caused tenants of Terminus House, many moved many miles from their communities, and the harm that it has caused to Harlow.

A failure to join me in insisting that this money is returned will show Harlow’s residents that you choose to support the interests of the very rich rather than your Government’s duty to support Councils in providing decent housing for Harlow’s residents.

It will also mean that all your forthcoming Conservative election materials, every flyer through the letterbox, every paid for advertisement in Facebook, has, at least in part, been funded by donations from a source that profited from Terminus House, a development you once described as “human warehousing”.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Mark Ingall,

Leader of Harlow Council