Olympic Village homes 'will be slums of the future'

Affordable homes being built as part of the 2012 Olympic Village were today described as the 'slums of the future'.

Tory Andrew Boff accused the Olympic Delivery Authority of having 'learned nothing from the housing mistakes of the past' as he criticised the layout and design of flats.

Mr Boff, the London Assembly Conservative Group's Olympic spokesman, made his comments as the ODA announced that work had started on the last of the site's 11 blocks.

He said: “What families want in London are houses with gardens and a door that opens on to the street.

"The legacy of the Olympics will be flats with mean little balconies and doors that open into a tenanted ghetto.

“The ODA is promoting this development as helping London's housing problem, but what it is actually doing is tinkering and experimenting with the most vulnerable people. It is a great shame that this awful development will be part of the Olympic legacy.

“Village architects were restricted to a eight year-old master plan that looks more like a child's potato print pattern than somewhere for people to live.

"The result will be soulless high-rise courtyard developments that have failed Londoners so many times before. Has nothing been learned from London's post war housing disasters?

“Due to the severe lack of homes in London tenants will have no effective choice over whether or not they move in there. Families will be forced to live higher than the fifth floor in socially-segregated blocks, some being for owner-occupiers and some for tenants.

“I will continue to raise this matter with the Mayor of London.”

An ODA spokesperson said: “The Olympic Village will deliver 2,800 essential new homes for east London with nearly 1,000 new homes for families along with new gardens, open space and community facilities.

"The Village will be a high-quality development where private, affordable and family housing will be integrated helping create a thriving new community for east London.”