The Mayor has announced this month that he will end the practice of subsidising the replacement of existing sound-quality social rented homes set to be demolished as part of estate regeneration schemes.
This is welcome news. In July last year we published a list of seven things the Mayor could do to get more social housing built in London, and this was one of them. Affordable housing grant should be spent only on additional homes for social rent.
“We want refurbishment of council homes, not demolition, so this is a good step the Mayor has taken,” said Pat Turnbull, regional representative for London Tenants Federation.
“All the new homes built with funding from the London Affordable Homes programme should be additional social rented homes, which are desperately needed. If half of the new homes funded under the next Affordable Homes Programme will be new homes for social rent, that will still not be enough but it is at least a step in the right direction.”
Some in the housing sector have complained that this change would make demolition schemes ‘unviable’. We can but hope! There needs to be more cash for refurbishing and for social landlords to ensure they are properly maintaining their existing homes.