Newham Voices,

Your newspaper’s second edition article about Lola’s Homeless organisation was an inspiring read for me about a group of people getting together to provide for those that have fallen out of the reach of local authority support initiatives. The fact that organisations such as Lola’s Homeless are able to do what they do without guaranteed resources, particularly when they are in desperate need of premises, is most disappointing to hear considering the volume of empty premises that the local authority could commandeer on their behalf, if only on short term arrangements.

Organisations like Lola’s Homeless have demonstrated that they are able to administer and deliver their services with an efficiency that local authorities on their own have often struggled to attain let alone maintain. It would be refreshingly supportive for such organisations if there was a nationwide policy that provided them with rent and rate free premises (or as a minimum at heavily discounted prices) from formerly vacated buildings that would often have just attracted illegal access, vandalism or worse.

It would go some way to reduce the number of rundown empty premises blighting most towns and high streets with the resulting eyesore of image of despair. I could envisage those schemes making such premises fit for purpose using individuals new to learning trade skills being mentored and supervised within the refurbishment teams in order to further develop their skills, experience and acquire the appropriate trade certification.

If it requires a signature on a petition to present to an MP I’ll add mine but it would be interesting to know if there are any such initiatives for such worthy organisations.

Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards,

David Charles

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