Islington Council has taken an important step towards tackling the housing crisis that causes misery to so many -- by confirming it will build the borough's first new council homes in a generation.
The council's Executive has agreed a £10 million pilot project to build the first new council homes Islington has seen for more than 20 years. Islington is now one of only a handful of boroughs in the country using its own capital funds to build new homes.
Islington is funding this pilot project from the sale of a portfolio of commercial property earlier this year, which enabled more than 100 local traders to buy their own premises. The new build council housing is just one of many local capital projects which will be funded from the proceeds of the £60million sale.
Cllr Terry Stacy, Deputy Leader of Islington Council and Executive Member for Housing and Communities, said: "Tackling Islington's housing crisis is a top priority for me. Like many boroughs, we have thousands of families on the housing waiting list, with many more living in cramped and over-crowded properties. As the second most densely populated borough in London and one of the smallest the challenges are huge.
"Thousands of affordable homes have been built in Islington in recent years and in the last two years there have been three affordable homes built in Islington for every one built in our neighbouring boroughs. Many of these are shared ownership or for key workers. Even this is not enough, so we're going to do something about it. Of course building these council houses isn't going to solve the problem overnight -- we know that for every family that benefits from these homes there will be many, many more still waiting. But we are taking an important step in the right direction."
Over the last 25 years all new social housing in Islington has been built by housing associations. The council has strongly supported this by helping them find sites and by demanding, through planning agreements, that private developers contribute to affordable housing. Islington Council will continue this work and to look for every opportunity to identify new affordable housing in the borough.
Cllr Terry Stacy said: "Building new council homes is not the only answer. We've already done a lot of good work with developers and with housing associations to get as many new affordable homes in the borough. This will not only continue, we will re-double our efforts. Our decision to build new council homes is just one part of an ongoing programme to get people off the waiting list and into homes."
New build council housing is significant in that all of it will be fully available to the council to house residents from the transfer and waiting lists, whereas only a percentage of the housing association homes in the borough can be used in this way.
Islington Council has already identified four potential sites to build around 25 units, subject to planning permission. They are 65-79 Boleyn Road, Mora Street car park, land adjacent to 99 Graham Street, and Armour Close garage site.
The council will seek to prioritise larger family sized homes, with gardens where possible, because these unit sizes are more difficult for housing associations to fund, and will help to move families out of overcrowded properties and into decent size homes.
Page Last Updated: 29 July 2008