Barnet Council speeds up development of affordable homes

Barnet Council have launched a new drive to boost the number of affordable homes in the borough.

The council announced that it will bring forward the redevelopment of the Dollis Valley estate by six months. The decision was made at a meeting of the council’s Assets, Regeneration and Growth committee and will enable residents to be housed more quickly.

Commenting on the scheme, Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council, and Committee chair said: "I am delighted that we have been able to speed up the building of this affordable housing. It has been a personal commitment of mine to get work on the regeneration estates going, so I am particularly happy that it is now accelerating.  

"The buildings on the current estate are a blight on residents’ lives and this decision will bring forward high quality new homes. When the rebuilding of our regeneration estates is complete there will be no noticeable difference between private housing and social and affordable housing – a huge step forward from the position today."

The development team has revised the building scheme to split the next phase into two separate parts, starting work on the affordable housing elements of the initiative next month.

This will speed up the development of 63 new inexpensive homes and means that existing residents from the old estate buildings can move into them at an earlier date.

Last month, the local authority unveiled a new initiative in which landlords and owners of empty properties could receive a grant to bring their properties back up to a good standard.

The 'Empty Properties Grant' offers homeowners in excess of £25,000 per property on condition that they rent out the property to people in housing need for five years.

In Barnet, between 1,500 and 2,500 houses remain unoccupied.

Published 10th September, 2014

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