A Bankside council house around the corner from Borough Market could be sold for millions despite thousands of people in the borough waiting for a home.
Southwark Council is intending to put the three-storey townhouse on Park Street on the market, according to an email sent by a town hall employee seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The Grade-II listed property is just minutes from the River Thames and within walking distance of landmarks including the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern.
Houses down the same street have sold for as much as £3 million as recently as March 2016.
An email sent on April 23 by a council officer reads: “I have been advised by our voids team that 26 Park Street will be disposed of and therefore no longer part of our housing stock.”
Opposition Lib Dem council leader Victor Chamberlain, who is also a councillor for Borough and Bankside, branded the decision to sell the council property “absolutely scandalous”.
Cllr Chamberlain said he had written to the council’s director of housing demanding an “urgent rethink”.
He wrote on Twitter: “We have a chronic shortage of affordable housing in our area. We need the council to build lots more affordable homes, not reduce them.”
The property on Park Street has been empty for over a year, according to local residents while there are over 17,500 people waiting for a council home in Southwark.
Bankside Village, a residents’ group for people living in and around Park Street, said they were “shocked” by the planned sale given the need for cheap council homes in the borough.
Ida Forster, chair of Bankside Village, said: “Council tenants should not be limited to living in certain parts of the borough – our residents want to live in a diverse community.”
On Twitter, the group added: “We object to this course of action and request that a family on the waiting list be placed at this property.”
Local residents are intending to hold a rally opposing the house’s sale outside the property soon. Southwark Council said no decision had been taken about the sale of any council house on Park Street.
The council added that if a sale were to go ahead a cabinet member would have to first sign it off, as happens for any high value council property.
Victor Chamberlain said Liberal Democrat councillors would call-in any cabinet decision to sell the Park Street property for scrutiny.