Twenty three new sites announced as part of our new Building for Lewisham housing programme launch
Some 2,300 Lewisham families are currently living in temporary accommodation, of which over 700 people stay in nightly paid accommodation.
As part of the Building for Lewisham programme, Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, and Paul Bell, Cabinet Member for Housing, yesterday handed over the keys at a new development of two and three-bedroom terraces at Woodbank in Downham. Having lived in temporary accommodation for years, Michelle Travers, Colin Bone and their family, moved into their new, three-bedroom home just in time for Christmas. These new, social homes were delivered by the council’s partner, resident-led housing association Phoenix Community Housing and are to be let at social rents.
We have already delivered new social homes across 13 sites with a further 27 sites already being built or having received planning consent. The 23 sites at ‘design and consultation stage’ will provide more than 500 social homes, with a mixture of one, two and three bedroom homes. We are building to the latest environmental standards and will mostly be delivered by the council’s housing company, Lewisham Homes, as well as housing associations.
Building for Lewisham is supported by £37.7m ‘Homes for Londoners’ funding from the Mayor of London. The Greater London Authority has agreed an additional £1.5m to enable us to build council homes on five other small sites which will be delivered by Lewisham Homes.
Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, said, “Having a secure home makes such a difference to people’s lives. For Michelle and Colin their new home means they no longer have to face the instability of living in temporary accommodation and can now firmly put roots down and plan for the future. The Building for Lewisham programme means we can continue to build hundreds more council homes that our residents so desperately need.”
Michelle Travers, Resident at Woodbank Road, said: “Before we moved to Woodbank, we’d been living in temporary accommodation for three years. Our flat was fine but it wasn’t ours and we’d almost given up on finding a home for our three children. But when we moved here, we found our home. This house is our home. And we can’t wait to just be putting up shelves and making it fully ours.”
Read more about the Building for Lewisham programme and find out further information about the completed and upcoming sites at: www.lewisham.gov.uk/buildingforlewisham