Return of the council home: but not as you know it!

EAST END FAMILIES are celebrating the completion of the council’s flagship Watts Grove development in Mile End in what will be one of the first council housing developments to be built by Tower Hamlets in decades.

The development, commissioned three years ago by then housing chief Councillor Rabina Khan working in partnership with the Greater London Authority, will help tackle the Borough’s overcrowding problem with the addition of 149 homes – 100% of which are for social rent.

Cali Muuse and Mrs Nessa and their respective families will be among the first to be handed keys to the modern, spacious council apartments. Today, they joined Councillor Khan at the site to inspect their new homes.

Cali said, “It’s absolutely beautiful. We can’t wait to move in. We’ve seen the work going on for ages but we never dreamed we’d end up living here.”

PATH Group Leader Councillor Khan said “Watts Grove will serve as a sharp rebuke to anyone who says council estates are a thing of the past.  This development was a cornerstone of my regeneration strategy which has just seen Tower Hamlets recognized as having delivered more new homes than any other council.”

PATH Chair, Cllr Abdul Asad, said, “While the Council delivers regeneration projects like Dame Colet House, Watts Grove and the infill housing programme begun under Cllr Khan, we need to continue to be visionary in delivering much needed homes.”

According to a GLA report, the borough gained 1,830 affordable homes between 2013 and 2016, including deductions for any affordable housing lost. Greenwich had the second highest total, with 1,763 homes built, while Newham came in third with 1,494.

Cllr Khan added, “Watts Grove shows how, working with the GLA, this council can take the lead in combating the crippling housing crisis across London. The council has received a top ‘new homes bonus’ from the Government because we’ve built so many, and I’m pleased that the new Administration has used the HRA to subsidise the rent on developments like Watts Grove, as I would have done.”

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