The council’s cabinet has been asked to approve the purchase of 36 homes in the Boleyn Heights development on Barking Road reports Ruby Gregory, Local Democracy Reporter

Old Town Hall Stratford Katie Chan CC-BY-SA-4.0

Newham Council has unveiled plans to buy several dozen new homes which will be used for homeless families currently in temporary accommodation. If approved, the council will acquire the 36 homes, located on a newly-built residential development called Boleyn Heights on Barking Road, for an undisclosed amount of money.

The council is hoping the move will help provide ‘much-needed’ affordable and accessible housing and will help to reduce the amount being spent on ‘costly’ nightly accommodation such as hotels. The East London borough currently has the highest number of households in temporary accommodation anywhere in the country at more than 6,000 homeless households – of which more than 3,000 were placed in nightly booked properties.

The council has said a major cause of this is the private rented sector pricing out residents, and said a number of working families can’t afford market rents and are unlikely to receive an offer on a social rented home in the medium term due to the 40,000-person housing waiting list.

Out of an £84 million projected budget black hole for 2025/26, the council says £52m of this is down to homelessness and temporary accommodation costs. As a result the council has announced ‘drastic’ cost cutting measures including selling off several assets and a proposed council tax increase of 8.99 per cent – including a 2per cent Adult Social Care precept.

If cabinet approve of the plans next week (February 18), the council would acquire the homes and would set up a lease arrangement with a third party who would be in charge of renting out and managing the homes. The homes would be let out to families on a London Housing Allowance (LHA) rent and would allow the council to discharge its duty owed to homeless households.

Of the 36 homes, there are seven one-beds, 12 two-beds, and 17 three-beds. If approved, the council will acquire the homes by borrowing from the General Fund as well as using money from the Local Authority Housing Funding grant (LAHF) – though the price that is being negotiated is exempt in cabinet documents.

According to the council, if it was to acquire all 36 units, it would generate temporary accommodation savings of around £45.1m over the next 50 years. Newham cabinet members have been recommended to approve of the plans at a meeting next week.

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