Convicted terrorist Abu Hamza's family home is receiving a £70,000 facelift, paid for by British taxpayers.
The £1.7 million Edwardian home, located in a conservation area of Shepherd's Bush, will see new windows and doors installed, as well as solar panels and loft insulation.
Lifetime tenancy arrangement
Hamza's wife, Najat Chaffe, is the only person registered at the five-bedroom council house, with the hate cleric serving a life sentence in a US jail.
Ms Chaffe's "tenancy for life" deal means that the Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council cannot evict her and is obliged to maintain the property.
She moved into the house in 1995, claiming the couple had separated, and Hamza's eight children were raised there. Three of his sons have since served jail sentences for offences related to drugs, money laundering and fraud.
Background of the radical cleric
Hamza, the hook-handed former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, never officially lived at the address but was seen there on several occasions before his first arrest in 2004.
Hamza, 68, was jailed in the UK in 2006 for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder. He was extradited to the US in 2014 for plotting the kidnap of 16 tourists in Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of four hostages.
He was sentenced to life without parole by a New York court and is currently held in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
Council response and next steps
Hammersmith and Fulham Council's Conservative opposition leader Jose Afonso said: "This is a disgusting waste of public money.
"Residents will be appalled to know that not only are we housing the families of terrorists, we are doing so in five-bedroom houses and paying for extensive upgrades."
The council said it was bound by law to upgrade around 1,000 properties. Planning permission has been submitted, but not yet approved, for works due for completion before the end of the decade.
