The council is determined to bring families in temporary housing back closer to Westminster – less than half of TA is in the city. It has allocated a huge £170m budget from general fund capital to a programme of acquisitions and is making better use of the GLA’s ‘right to buy back’ scheme.
It will also improve the package of support offered to households in TA and invest in homelessness prevention services. It will review the rough sleeping strategy by the end of the year, working closely with other statutory services and the hugely committed voluntary sector.
The review launched a new city-wide residents’ panel to help it evaluate services to tenants and leaseholders. The council is soon to open a new housing office in the most deprived area of the borough, north Paddington, and plans are in place to re-open other estate offices and advice surgeries.
“Westminster is a city of extremes, with some of the richest and some of the poorest places in the country cheek by jowl”
The number of housing officers has been increased significantly and there are plans in place to improve service responsiveness generally. The call centre is now taking 250,000 calls a year and is critically important to the quality of the service.
Work has also started on a new repairs charter and a charter for leaseholders. The council is doing innovative work on damp and mould, but the response must be commensurate with the scale of the problem.
The review has been realistic about what can be achieved by the council in its first term with the resources and powers available to it.
Westminster is a city of extremes, with some of the richest and some of the poorest places in the country cheek by jowl. Insecurity and the lack of housing affordability is at its most extreme and the council’s focus on protecting the existing stock of affordable homes and increasing the new supply of homes for social rent can only ameliorate the problem.
The review emphasises the critical importance of taking every opportunity to provide social rented homes because each and every home offers a low-income household the chance of a decent life in the city.
If only the government would do its bit.
Steve Hilditch, chair, Westminster Housing Review; and founder, Red Brick Blog
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