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Standing still is simply not an option
Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh10.07.09
“Many council estates have become what they were fighting in the first place - social ghettos.”
These are not my words but the words of Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham. Hammersmith & Fulham has some of the wealthiest households in the country, but there are concentrations of deprivation where people's lives have been blighted by crime, poor environment and low aspiration.
Unemployment is higher on our estates than anywhere else in the borough. Thousands of our tenants are living in overcrowded accommodation. Across our council estates 29 to 40% of our council tenants want to buy in the area but do not want to buy the home where they live today.
With our high levels of poverty, we have set ourselves the mission to regenerate the most deprived parts of the borough. We want to keep our residents in the borough by providing better housing, attracting more jobs, creating a better housing environment and giving people a chance to get onto the property ladder.
Standing still is simply not an option when it will cost the council over £1billion over the next 10 years just to maintain our existing housing stock. Our ambition to redevelop a number of our council estates over the next 15-20 years is not a secret plot but the way to deliver more homes and better quality housing in a greatly improved environment. In some ways we are behind other parts of London as the redevelopment of the Ferrier Estate in Greenwich, Woodberry Down in Hackney and West Hendon in Barnet is already underway.
Finally we have issued a cast-iron guarantee that where long-term estate renewal opportunities arise all council tenants will be offered a home in the area and there will be no reduction in the amount of social housing.
This Conservative council has a vision for Hammersmith & Fulham to become the Borough of Opportunity instead of a borough of contrasts and we will not be sidetracked by cheap jibes from our political opponents.
Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh is leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council
Reader views (1)
I read Councillor Greenhalgh’s article with keen interest. I'm intrigued that he has taken to quoting me in his comments on social housing, and I am keen to clarify my position.
London is a tale of two cities. For a leading world city, there are serious inequalities between east and west which should not exist in the 21st century. This is a disgrace and a major obstacle to the progress of the city as a whole.
We require a first-class capital, not a two-tier city. I am deeply concerned that a lack of commitment to social housing in the west could achieve the latter. Newham is absolutely committed to providing social housing and we welcome the Government’s recent announcement to give greater flexibility to local authorities and build more affordable homes.
Communities across London should be mixed by class, ethnicity and tenure. Every borough must take responsibility for providing both social housing to ensure that work pays and affordable housing so that more people are given the opportunity of homeownership.
If housing policy forces the exportation of poverty to certain areas of the capital, we let down both residents and our aspiration to be a world class city. Just as we must avoid ghettoised and deprived estates, so must we resist wholesale gentrification through exporting poverty. This would undermine community cohesion, create a two-tier city and prevent east London from ever fully contributing to our local and national economy.
- Sir Robin Wales, Newham Mayor, London
