Landlord of council-subsidised cafe Hackney Heart is Labour activist
Subsidised cafe Hackney Heart at 411 Mare Street. Photograph: Josh Loeb
Labour-run Hackney Council is putting thousands of pounds of public funds per month into the bank account of an accountant running to become a Labour councillor in nearby Enfield.
The council is paying £16,000 in rent over six months to prominent Labour activist Haydar Ulus, who is the landlord of 411 Mare Street – the premises where controversial pop-up Hackney Heart is based.
Mr Ulus, an accountant with expertise in “offshore formation, offshore tax and offshore bank set-up” according to his Linkedin page, is standing as a Labour candidate in Enfield at the forthcoming local elections and has tweeted pictures of himself with party members including Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Sadiq Khan.
He owns 411 Mare Street with his brother but stressed he has no connection with Hackney Heart.
Mr Ulus said: “I am the landlord but not the owner of the business.”
He said he had not been a Labour candidate at the time he began receiving rental income from Hackney Council.
He added that it was “totally wrong” to make any connection between his political affiliation and the fact that Hackney Council is paying him rent.
He said: “To compare the two is totally unnecessary.”
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “We were unaware of Mr Ulus’ political affiliation. The decision was made by council officers and politics played no part in the agreement to rent this empty shop as part of our wider plans to boost the Narrow Way.”
Mr Ulus has applauded the council’s regeneration work in the Narrow Way.
He told the Hackney Citizen: “What Hackney have done is very good. I have been a community business owner for the past 50 years. I own 10 shops on that street which used to be locked up and crawling with rats…. People who know me in the borough and know me in the council as well know the contribution I have made to the area.”
Hot potato
Hackney Heart, a cafe and so-called community hub that Hackney Council says is part of its regeneration of the Narrow Way, became a hot political issue last month after Conservative London Assembly Member Andrew Boff obtained figures via a Freedom of Information request which showed Hackney Council was subsidising the enterprise run by businesswoman Jane MacIntyre.
Anti-gentrification protesters staged a protest outside the cafe in February.
At the time Hackney Liberal Democrat spokesperson Tony Harms said: “It appears that the people of Hackney are, without any consultation, subsidising a commercial enterprise in a prime location, and one which will compete with established businesses in the area.”
Hackney Council says Hackney Heart, which opened in September 2013, is a “temporary café, shop, gallery and community hub” that is not run for profit and is located in “a shop which had previously been empty for more than a year”.
A statement on the council’s website states: “The idea behind Hackney Heart is to bring the shop back in to use, to encourage shoppers to visit the Narrow Way and to create employment opportunities.
“Animating empty shop units in this way and demonstrating how they may be used has proved to be an effective way of marketing commercial units and follows the success of the Council’s Art in Empty Spaces programme and initiatives like FARM:shop on Dalston Lane.”
The statement adds: “Since opening Hackney Heart has made a small surplus which will be reinvested in free activities for the community.”
The council says the £16,000 to pay for the rent of the shop comes from the High Street Innovation Fund earmarked to support high streets affected by the 2011 riots.
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Cries of ‘yuppie scum’ at protest against subsidised Hackney Heart cafe