Tower Hamlets Council has put £1.7m into the refurbishment of eleven derelict homes in order to create new family homes for social rent. The properties had fallen into disrepair due to the lack of development funds available to local authorities generally, and the properties had been leased to a housing association. Last year the Council decided to regain possession of the properties and made funding available to refurbish them and bring them back as Council housing.
The scheme will deliver nine three-bedroomed houses and two additional large family homes for letting to Tower Hamlets families who are in housing need. Most importantly of all, they will be let at the council’s social target rent levels. To date, many of the homes which housing associations develop are let at much higher rents, as the Government insists on this as a condition of funding social landlords to build.
Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman said: “Housing is a key priority for Tower Hamlets, and I will continue to make use of all our available properties in order to provide housing for our residents.”
Two properties have been refurbished and have been let to families who had been waiting for suitable family accommodation. Three additional properties are expected to be completed during August and the remaining properties will follow in the course of the year. The houses have new roofs, new kitchens and bathrooms, as well as new windows and are decorated throughout, ready to move in.
Councillor Rabina Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing and Development, said: “This is a fantastic project. We’ve brought these council properties back into use, to become high quality council run family homes for our residents. It’s also very important to us that the homes will be let at normal rents, not at rents inflated by the docklands market for private property.”
•Three Labour East London boroughs in London home loss top ten
Every day, 159 households in London are at risk of losing their home, new analysis from Shelter reveals. The research, based on data recorded by the Ministry of Justice, found that in the past year almost 58,000 homes in London are at risk of eviction or repossession, the equivalent of 159 every day.
It also identified the latest hotspots across the capital where people are most likely to face losing their home. The Labour Council of Barking tops the list. Two East London boroughs which have Labour mayors also feature in the top ten, with Newham in second place and Hackney in tenth. On the other hand, Tower Hamlets – where Lutfur Rahman, the independent Mayor rejected by Labour, has prioritised keeping tenants in their homes and avoiding evictions – is not in the top ten at all.
Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, is warning that sky high housing costs are pushing more and more families in London to the brink. With finances stretched to bursting point, just one thing, such as an illness or job loss, can be all it takes to leave a family facing losing their home.
Shelter is currently struggling to meet demand for its services and is calling for support so that it can help more people stay in their homes. Since 2011, the charity has seen the number of callers from across the country who are struggling with rent arrears more than double, while those calling about mortgage arrears rose by nearly a fifth.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “159 households at risk of losing their home every day is 159 too many. Each one of these will have had their lives turned upside down by this experience, as they faced seeing their home, the foundation of their life, ripped away from underneath them.
“Tragically we are seeing more and more people coming to us for help, people who have been struggling to make ends meet and then just one change of circumstances has pushed them spiralling towards homelessness. We urgently need people’s support so we can help more people in London avoid the nightmare of losing their home.”