Taxpayers to foot £70,000 bill to upgrade Abu Hamza's £1.7m Shepherd's Bush council home

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026 · last updated 26 September 2026.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council is planning to spend £70,000 of public money renovating the five-bedroom Edwardian council house in Shepherd's Bush where hate preacher Abu Hamza's wife Najat Chaffe, 67, is the only registered tenant. Specialist tradesmen will fit new windows, doors, solar panels and loft insulation at the £1.7m property. Hamza, 68, is serving life without parole in a maximum-security prison in Colorado after being convicted of plotting the kidnap of 16 tourists in Yemen, four of whom died.

Jose Afonso, the Conservative opposition leader on the council, called it 'a disgusting waste of public money' and said residents would be 'appalled'.

Chaffe holds a 'tenancy for life' deal struck in 1995, which means the Labour-run council has no power to evict her and must maintain the property in good repair.

Three of Hamza's sons have served jail sentences for drugs, money laundering and fraud — all raised in the very house now receiving its taxpayer-funded facelift.