Tottenham Hotspur will be allowed to abandon a promise to invest £16 million in the riot-hit community so plans for its new £400 million
stadium can be salvaged.
The football club, which made a £32.3 million profit last year, says a 60,000-seat arena is "not financially viable" if it has to fund a regeneration package that includes 100 affordable homes and a £1.2 million donation to local schools.
Haringey councillors are tonight set to allow the club to tear up a legally binding deal to invest in the surrounding area in return for permission to build the new ground. It means that the club, which generated £163.5 million in revenue last year, would be allowed to build 285 flats - 85 more than planned - but not hand over a single unit to a low-paid worker.
It would also be cleared of the duty to spend £13.3 million improving Tottenham Hale station and surrounding roads before its crowds rise by 55 per when the new ground, beside the 36,237 capacity White Hart Lane, opens in 2016.
Instead only £8 million of transport improvements will be carried out - with taxpayers picking up the bill after Haringey and Boris Johnson agreed to subsidise the plans as part of a £41 million regeneration of Tottenham.
Richard Wilson, Liberal Democrat opposition leader on the council, said taxpayers' cash was "being used to prop up a commercial development". He added: "The council seems to have failed to get a good deal for residents."
The club was granted permission for a new stadium in 2010, with a superstore and homes - half of which were to be affordable - alongside.
It claims the economic downturn has made the scheme impossible and has asked to keep the profit from all the homes. Financial experts Grant
Thornton, brought in by the council, found a "substantial funding gap".
Paul Phillips, Spurs' project director, said: "All major regeneration projects require a level of public sector support, especially in areas with such high levels of deprivation and need."
Alan Strickland, Haringey's cabinet member for economic development, said: "The council's investment will be £9 million, but with funding from the GLA and Spurs, north Tottenham is set for a £400 million regeneration."
