ISLINGTON is set to receive a �3.7 million windfall from the government as a reward for the number of new homes being built in the borough.

The council will receive the second highest share of the �200million pot being dished out as part of a national initiative to create more affordable housing.

Councillor Paul Convery, Islington Council’s executive member for planning and regeneration, said: “We have signed up to help develop one thousand new homes every year over the next ten years and we hope half of those will be affordable homes.

“We are quite a packed borough already but there are many sites on which the council can develop housing.

“We want to use the money to diminish the effects of some of the harsh cuts we are facing and to invest in the long term services and facilities that the growth will require.

“A lot of Tory councils don’t want to build new homes, but we are very keen to build more to deal with the housing crisis.

“If those other councils don’t want the money then they can send it to us.”

Across the country, 2010 saw the lowest peacetime level of new homes being built since 1923.