Six more social homes in Hackney Wick through council’s Right to Buy cash giveaway
An artist's impression of the homes in Wallis Road. Picture: Hackney Council - Credit: Archant
Six homes on a Hackney Wick development that were to be let for near market rate will now be social housing thanks to a grant from Hackney Council.
An artist's impression of the homes in Wallis Road. Picture: Hackney Council - Credit: Archant
The £370,000 cash injection will save the prospective tenants of the Wallis Road homes £9,000 a year in rent, with averages of £165 to £173 a week rather than £340.
It comes from the Mayor of Hackney's Housing Challenge Fund - in which the council gives money from Right to Buy receipts to housing associations for social homes.
It does so because of arbitrary government restrictions that dictate cash made from the forced sale of council homes can only fund 30 per cent of a new home, with the rest of the cost having to be funded by the council from another pot.
Cash from the sales must be spent within three years, with any surplus receipts either handed to the government with interest or given to the Greater London Authority for future use.
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To stop that happening, the council last year decided to give it away to housing associations instead. The latest agreement means 23 homes have been converted to social rent.
The homes are part of a larger development by Telford homes and will be managed by housing association Poplar HARCA.
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Mayor Phil Glanville said: "This agreement with Poplar HARCA will see rents cut to a level that families in desperate need of somewhere to live can afford."
The fund is open for applications from housing associations. Visit hackney.gov.uk/building.
