NINETY-FIVE new social homes for rent are opening their doors to residents on the Tower Hamlets housing waiting list. The homes have been built by local housing association East End Homes.
Mayor Lutfur Rahman turned out to cut the ribbon and open the scheme last week, together with Director of Housing David Joyce. The new one-, two- and three-bedroomed flats have been built on top of three blocks in Eric Street on the Mile End Estate. New residents should be moving in during February.
Apparently some flats will be “set aside to support current tenants whose homes are overcrowded”. It is not clear what this means. Usually all properties owned and managed by those housing associations who took over Council properties in the Housing Choice process are let to residents on the Council’s “Common Housing Register” (the Council’s housing waiting list) in order of priority. For many, that will mean that the homes will be let to residents whose homes are overcrowded.
It may be that some of the new homes will be reserved for residents already living in overcrowded homes on the Mile End Estate. That is a welcome policy – first practised by Islington Council. It allows overcrowded residents to move locally, so they can keep their local connections. They can keep their GP, and their children can stay at the same schools. However, we do not know if this is the case here.
Daniel Killan, the new Chief Executive of East End Homes, welcomed the new homes. He said, “we’re proud to support residents of Tower Hamlets and deliver much-needed new homes in an area of high demand.” East End Homes has no choice but to support residents of Tower Hamlets: the terms under which they were set up required them to let their flats to residents nominated by Tower Hamlets Council.
Mr Killan also referred to East End Homes as a “locally based and community led housing association”. Perhaps he should read through his association’s archives. East End Homes was originally established on the “community gateway” model, which reserved seats for residents and the local community. East End Homes ignored their rules for many years, before abolishing them and declaring itself an ordinary housing association.
However, despite the past difficulties with East End Homes, we have 95 new homes for social rent ready now. “With far too many families living in overcrowded or unsuitable conditions, I am delighted to be opening 95 new high-quality homes for social rent, which will be allocated to Tower Hamlets residents on the housing waiting list who are most in need,” said Mayor Lutfur Rahman. “We are committed to keeping people in our communities, in secure homes they can afford, and providing future generations with comfortable, decent housing for many years to come.”
A few days after the Mile End opening, Mayor Lutfur Rahman told the Cabinet of further homes that are being built. The new Local Plan hopes to see 50,000 homes built over the next decade. The Mayor’s going to need his ribbon-cutting scissors again before we know it.
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