Twickenham MP Munira Wilson, who also represents residents throughout Teddington, has secured a major breakthrough in the campaign to ensure the disused former Teddington Police Station is retained for community use.

In a debate in Parliament yesterday, Ms Wilson secured backing for her campaign to ensure that the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime can sell its publicly owned assets below market value for community benefit, rather than being sold to luxury developers.

With the Metropolitan Police having sold off over a hundred former front counter stations across the capital in the last ten years, there is a clear opportunity for them to be used for community infrastructure including social housing.

Whilst the need is great, social and affordable housing is in short supply: over one million households in England are on the waiting list for social housing, a quarter of which are in London. Yet according to housing charities such as Shelter, fewer than 7,000 social homes were built in 2021.

The current cost of living crisis has worsened the situation across the country and whilst Richmond remains one of the most affluent boroughs in London, the waiting list for housing in Richmond alone is 5,000 households long.

Local MP Munira Wilson has been campaigning alongside residents fighting for the communal use of the site previously belonging to Teddington Police Station.

Ms Wilson told Nub News: "We are beyond crisis point now. Nurses and teachers can't afford to live in the areas they work, and our young people can't even dream of getting on the housing ladder.

"In many London boroughs, sites to build new homes are vanishingly scarce, so when a publicly owned asset like a police station comes up for sale, the argument for keeping it in community hands for housing or other infrastructure is clear."

The Twickenham MP's campaign was inspired by Teddington Police Station within her constituency. Since the police station was closed and marketed for sale in 2017, Ms Wilson has been calling on the Mayor of London to ensure the site is retained for community benefit – specifically, for affordable housing for local residents, and as a much-needed new home for a local GP surgery.

Park Road Surgery, which serves over 13,000 patients in a dilapidated Victorian building designed to serve far fewer, desperately needs to move to new premises. Located just over the road, the Teddington Police Station site would provide ample space for a state of the art home for the surgery. 

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has repeatedly maintained that the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is obliged to sell the Teddington Police Station site for maximum financial value, though – following Munira's campaigning – the Mayor has since said that MOPAC is seeking fresh legal advice on the sale. 

Ms Wilson added: "I'm grateful for the support the Minister has shown in meeting with me and working with Home Office colleagues to ensure the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime can prioritise public good when selling off sites.

"This started in Teddington, but it is now part of my wider campaign to ensure all public bodies – be that the NHS, fire brigades or police forces – can prioritise public good when disposing of land."