A landlord criticised for letting tiny apartments which one national newspaper described as worse than prison cells has hit back - and says he should be given an award.
Andrew Panayi, who owns around 250 properties in the London borough of Islington, had one of his blocks shut down by council officials. A local councillor says Panayi has a record of breaching planning regulations and letting out too-small properties.
However, Panayi has told his local newspaper that the council has been guilty of punching first and asking questions later.
He says: All of these people are now being made homeless, and they will end up having to pay more rent as the market price has gone up. The people in [the closed block on] Holloway Road are there because they are vulnerable and some have problems. The council says the flats should be 12 metres in size and they are only nine. But the rules say they can be nine if there is a separate shared kitchen facility. I have kitchens in that building I could open. Why don't they talk to me first
A council spokesman hit back, saying: Andrew Panayi can't make these flats acceptable just by making them a bit bigger. They only have permission as a hostel, so to convert them into self-contained flats they'd need to comply with our planning policies. That means that as well as being bigger, they'd have to meet other requirements about their quality and providing affordable housing.
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