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AN “OUTSTANDING” nursery is threatened with closure after 40 years following a housing association’s sale of its building to a private landlord, which quadrupled the rent.

Market Playgroup has been told to leave its Roman Way premises, off Caledonian Road, in April because it is unable to afford a £27,000 rent hike imposed by new landlord Triplerose Ltd.

Its managers, assisted by the Town Hall, are now desperately trying to find a new building for the nursery, which has 31 children on its books, provides specialist care for children with special needs, and was rated “outstanding” in all four areas by Ofsted last year.

Hayley Earls, 29, whose daughter Poppy attends the crèche, said: “The nursery has been here for a very long time and Poppy loves it. It’s just so sad that it’s come to this. This place is like a family.”

A spokeswoman for the nursery committee said: “Our nursery will be a great loss to Islington if we cannot secure another building. Our staff have shown nothing but passion, support, loyalty and a great environment for children to start their first steps into education.”

In 2005, the nursery building was bought by Hyde housing association when the Ringcross estate was transferred from Islington Council, which continues to pay the nursery’s annual rent of £8,000.

But parents discovered last year that Hyde had quietly sold the building to Triplerose in 2014. They say neither the council, which had been trying to secure a lease, nor Hyde consulted them.

The nursery spokeswoman added: “We were never informed that Hyde had intentions of selling our building. The earliest we knew of this was when a surveyor from Triplerose came round. Surely we should have been informed?”

The Tribune also discovered that Hyde, which is involved in growing rows with residents on three Islington estates over issues including damp, disrepair and parking charges, sold Triplerose a 125-year lease for only £144,000. This is the equivalent of around 15 years’ rent at the current figure of £8,000, taking into account inflation.

And the sale came after £500,000 of government funding was poured into the building in the last decade to improve nursery facilities.

Caledonian ward councillor Paul Convery said: “It’s scandalous behaviour from what is supposed to be a social landlord. It’s rapacious asset-stripping.”

Last night (Thursday) Councillor Joe Caluori, Islington’s education chief, played down any prospect of the nursery’s closure. He said the Town Hall was negotiating with Triplerose to allow the nursery to stay until the end of the academic year in July.

The council was not able to pay the full £35,000 rent as this would go “beyond what we could normally pay in such a setting”, he said.

However, he added: “We have options in the short term and in the long term [for the nursery]. I’m completely committed to finding a solution and we are going to work really hard on that.”

It has emerged that the Town Hall, acting on behalf of the nursery, was aware of the sale and had been attempting to secure a new lease. The nursery maintains it was never told of the sale, but this is disputed by the council.

A joint statement from Islington Council and Hyde said: “Endeavours were made on both sides to provide an ongoing subsidised rental within the sale agreement, Hyde being willing to accept a lower asking price to secure this. Unfortunately, it did not prove possible to conclude discussions in time to be included in the sale agreement.”

Cllr Convery added: “The double insult is that Hyde sold it to a private landlord at a fraction of its actual commercial value. It’s a ridiculously discounted price and that’s utterly incompetent.”

Shaun Holdcroft, Hyde director of residents’ services and portfolio management in London, said the sale was part of the housing association’s “standard approach” of selling commercial property in order to fund its work as a residential landlord.

Israel Moskovitz, director at Triplerose, said: “We believe that the property has been occupied for many years at a rent significantly below market rent. We are happy to grant a new lease at the market rent.”