The future of London’s oldest lesbian and gay charity looks assured after Islington Council agreed to allow it to buy the building it occupies, instead of putting it up for auction on the open market.

London Friend, the oldest counselling service in the capital for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, faced closure after the local authority announced in November that its Caledonian Road office would be auctioned in a few weeks’ time.

After the news hit the media, Islington council agreed to give the charity the option to buy the building and the charity launched an emergency appeal to raise £200,000.

Last week the council announced that the charity had been promised sufficient funding to buy the property at a discounted rate. London Friend was able to raise £46,000 and has also been promised a loan of £100,000 from what chief executive Matthew Halliday described as a “non-traditional finance route” though this has not yet been confirmed.

He stopped short of saying the premises had been saved because the charity and the council still needed to iron out some details. But Cllr Richard Greening, deputy leader and executive member for finance at Islington Council said he was “delighted the freehold of the property will now pass into London Friend’s ownership”.