Mayor Lutfur Rahman welcomes new homes in Stepney

IT’S OFFICIAL! Construction has begun on the Council’s HAP Regeneration Scheme in Stepney Green. HAP is the regeneration of Harriott, Apsley and Pattison Houses – hence the name.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman and Cllr Saied Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Homebuilding and Enhancing Council Homes and Neighbourhoods (another job title from the Ministry of Silly Names), came out to the site  for a groundbreaking event to mark the start of the main construction works. There they met Kevin Delve, Managing Director of Vistry East London, the Council’s development partner. There did not seem to be any residents present.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman

Mayor Lutfur Rahman was pretty happy to see progress, saying, “Breaking ground in Stepney Green is another important milestone in our ambitious homebuilding programme. Our commitment is not simply to build more homes, but to create strong, thriving neighbourhoods with the facilities and public spaces our communities deserve.”

The HAP programme will refresh an area of Stepney Green that has long looked run down – as well as improving the homes that stand on the site. It has been through long consultation and a long process of scrutiny by the Building Safety Regulator, but doing things properly takes time.

Now the less good news. Although the Council consistently points out that the programme will deliver 407 new homes, it seldom admits that it will be knocking down a number of existing ones to make way for the new ones. Phase 1 of the programme will provide 109 Council homes – but that includes replacement homes for existing residents.

Phase 2 of the programme will deliver more homes: these will include homes for shared ownership as well as rent. The total number of extra Council homes for rent which will come onto the Common Housing Register for locals to rent is thought to be around 63, which will only make a very small dent in the waiting list of around 30,000 households.

Regeneration is hard at the moment, with many developers holding back, dropping out and even making redundancies, so getting this scheme off the ground is a tremendous achievement for local politicians and Town Hall staff. The larger number of units that the borough needs so much will come in later developments. It will be a difficult challenge to meet.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman recognised the scale of the challenge, saying, “Tower Hamlets is building for the future. At a time when London desperately needs more genuinely affordable homes, we are getting on with delivering the high-quality council housing local families need.”

●Read more about it:
Housing progress: but where are the residents?
Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s housing plan moves forward