Westminster to embark on London's biggest council-house building programme 'for a generation'

Work on the biggest council-house building programme London has seen for a generation is set to start in May, council bosses have announced.

Over the next four years Westminster Council will build almost 500 homes on brownfield and under-used sites on existing estates to help ease chronic overcrowding and homelessness in the borough.

The scheme will include 104 shared ownership homes and 70 one-bedroom starter homes on offer at a discounted price which will benefit people struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder.

Construction will start on the first of these properties early next month, with 10 affordable homes being built in the redundant ground floor areas of estates in Westbourne, near Harrow Road and Queen's Park.

It follows the Budget announcement that councils will be given £100m to build new homes.

Philippa Roe, Westminster's cabinet member for housing, said: "This is the first major phase in our council house building programme, which will provide much needed affordable homes for hundreds of people in London. This is a historical moment for Westminster and next month work to construct 500 new homes will commence."

Under the council's house building programme, most of the new homes will predominantly be set aside for social rent and low cost home homeownership, while more than half will have at least three bedrooms, helping local residents who live in overcrowded conditions. T

hey will be built on dilapidated areas such as run down garages and storage sheds in areas such as Little Venice, Hyde Park, Bayswater and the Edgware Road.

Overall, approximately four in every 10 affordable units will be for low cost home ownership, aimed at helping residents who may be able to afford to buy a share in a property but have no prospect of buying outright on the open market.

These starter homes will remain affordable through a clause in the lease that means the discount on the market price has to be passed on to future purchasers.

Latest figures show Westminster has around 1,200 families classified as living in overcrowded conditions and 2,500 in temporary accommodation. Last year, Westminster Council was awarded £36 million from the Homes and Community Agency to help fund its house building project.

Meanwhile, the Labour Group on Westminster Council has expressed concern over plans to offer intermediate housing at special mortgage rates to non-residents.

Labour Councillors say that the qualifying salary level of £30,000 for the Council’s intermediate housing initiative means that many Westminster residents doing essential, but lower paid work, like nurses, social workers, street cleansing and waste disposal personnel, will not qualify for this housing. The Conservatives say that the scheme will not work at lower salary levels.

Councillor Guthrie McKie, Labour’s Spokesperson for Housing, said: “It is breathtaking. At a time when we have a serious housing crisis with 2,500 families living in overcrowded accommodation and many other families living in damp homes, the council is giving priority to people who don’t live in Westminster.

"There is land available in Westminster to start a major house building programme. The North Wharf Road site is owned by the Council and yet it is planning to sell it to the highest bidder.

"The site in Edgware Road, next to Paddington Green police station, has been vacant for nearly 20 years and yet the council refuses to seek a compulsory purchase order so that it can be developed.

"Not much has changed in Westminster’s housing policies over the past 20 years. Existing residents in housing need should be the priority and we will fight for more new homes for Westminster residents.”