London Property Newham Council

More households are living in temporary accommodation in one east London borough than in the whole of the north of England, our event has heard.

Rokhsana Fiaz, who was elected mayor of Newham last May, said during the opening keynote that the housing crisis facing the country is ‘particularly acute’ in London.
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A total of 7,500 children live in temporary accommodation in the borough and 28,000 people are on the authority’s housing waiting list, she said: “We have significantly more residents and families living in temporary accommodation than in the entire north of England combined.”

The scale of the problem means that housing the “top priority” for her administration: “Only a massive house building programme can begin to address the scale of this challenge.”

Backing from London Mayor Sadiq Khan will enable Newham to build 1,100 “genuinely affordable homes”, which will help the authority to meets its target to build 43,000 homes over the next 15 years.

Newham is very committed to the estuary’s development, Fiaz said: “We can’t conceive a situation where the Thames Estuary won’t be a priority for my organisation.”

But the council didn’t want to repeat the mistakes from the past when its residents hadn’t necessarily benefited from the growth of the borough, Fiaz said: “The opportunities for Newham and the Thames Estuary are huge, but we have to make sure that it works for residents. Growth must be inclusive and deliver for local communities. Too often growth has come in and not brought benefits for local people, which is why we intend on doing things differently.”

Fiaz said Newham has introduced a community wealth building strategy to ensure that growth creates local employment and the authority is keen to encourage large companies, which operate in the borough, to become accredited London living wage employers.
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