Campaigners are calling for more council housing to be built on a major regeneration site to help thousands of families waiting for a home.

Meridian for Council Homes (M4CH) wants all of the 10,000 homes planned for the Meridian Water development in Upper Edmonton to be owned by the council.

The campaign group points out demand for social housing is very high, with around 4,000 people on Enfield Council’s housing waiting list.

It adds that many of these people are housed in expensive temporary accommodation or with private sector landlords.

Enfield Council says it aims to meet the Mayor of London’s target of 50 per cent affordable housing across the Meridian Water site.

Around half of the affordable homes will be available for social or affordable rented housing.

The first phase of the scheme will provide 725 homes – but M4CH claims only 75 of these will be council houses.

The campaign group held its first meeting at Broad House in Edmonton on July 27, and several councillors went along to the event.

Cllr Tolga Aramaz, Labour councillor for Edmonton Green, said: “Right now, we know there are alternative ways other councils are doing housing developments in their borough.

“For instance, Islington Council does 60 per cent council homes and 40 per cent genuinely affordable homes on public land. We could try to do something similar.

“But the point is, there has not been a viability assessment to see how we can get 100 per cent council homes. The main drive is speed rather than focusing on the type of homes.”

Cllr Aramaz called for council officers to draw up an assessment to show what could be achieved at Meridian Water, pointing out that the council has provided 100 per cent council homes on previous developments.

He said Cllr Gunawardena, Cllr Ergin Erbil, Cllr Dinah Barry, Cllr Yasemin Brett and Cllr Anne Brown also attended the meeting, which drew an audience of just under 100 people.

In a press statement, M4CH said: “All public land should serve public needs. We must have council homes to address the immoral scourge of the housing crisis in our borough.”

A council spokesperson said: “Over 12 months ago the council’s administration took the decision to assume the role of master developer at Meridian Water because it was unwilling to hand over public land to one private developer with very little benefit to local people.

“The council now has control over the delivery of the development and has been able to guarantee at least 40 per cent affordable housing including council housing.

“As a result, the council is now in the position where we can ensure that local people will be the principal beneficiaries of the Meridian Water scheme.

“This will be further secured through a forthcoming fundamental review of our allocations scheme, including local lettings policies, giving Edmonton residents first priority for new housing.

“Previously the master developer candidates were only offering 30 per cent affordable for the whole scheme with no guarantee of council housing.

“The ambition for Meridian Water overall has always been to provide thousands of homes to address the housing crisis in Enfield and deliver a scheme which meets the broad range of needs in our borough.

“Enfield is also calling on the Government to provide additional funding to ensure that we can build homes at social rent levels rather than affordable rent levels, which is a condition of Greater London Authority development funding.

“The council is also calling for an end to the Right to Buy policy which sees many ex-council homes being let in the private rented sector at unaffordable rent levels.”