Islington finance chiefs have apparently botched the offloading of council property when a shop worth £200,000 was sold at a knockdown £26,000.

According to Roisin Gadelrab at the Islington Tribune, local businesses were furious when it emerged the dry cleaners in upmarket St. John Street, Clerkenwell, was sold for just over 10% of its true value.

Leaseholders up in arms

Last year 222 properties were sold from the council's property portfolio, leaseholders where told they could buy if they matched the bid from a private property developer's company, Structadene. Many could not.

The Lib Dem run Town Hall refused to say whether the occupant of the dry cleaners was ever told his property - valued at £200,000 - was up for sale at £26,000.

Leaseholders who struggled, succeed and failed to raise the money put forward by the developers are up in arms over the blunder. One man who missed the deadline to buy his next door shop by two hours called the sale 'disgusting.'

'Pressures led to mistakes'

A local Conservative activist blamed an 'administrative error', a missing zero on one of the properties sold, and intense pressure from managers above. There was no public auction and residents were not allowed to tender their own bids. The council said the leaseholder failed to qualify for the process and that property disposal team regularly updated managers, the legal team and the executive.

Overall, the sale of properties brought in £69million, £11million more than expected.

New concerns

There now also concerns on the planned sale of the former Moorfield's School site in Finsbury - that a similar mistake could happen if the deal is rushed.