HOUSING HAS always been one of Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s priorities. He has spoken in public a number of times about the scandal of overcrowding in the borough, and how this makes residents miserable and holds them back.

The Mayor made it clear that the only way out of overcrowding was to build more homes. He began working on a new Local Plan that could deliver a massive 50,000 homes over the next ten years. Dissatisfied with the speed at which the Council was used to working on house-building, the Mayor put his foot down and pulled together an “Accelerated Housing Programme” (AHP) to hurry things along.

Capital spending of £143 million has now been agreed, which will fund the first ten sites in the AHP. This is what the Mayor said.

“This is an important milestone in delivering on our commitment to provide the genuinely affordable and family-sized homes our residents need. Too many families are waiting for a secure, high-quality home, and the Mayor's Accelerated Housing Programme is a bold response to that challenge.

“By approving funding for these first ten sites, we are turning our ambition into action. We are not simply building homes; we are investing in neighbourhoods, improving public spaces and creating sustainable communities that will benefit residents for generations to come.

“Community engagement has been at the heart of this programme, and I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to share their views. Those conversations are helping to shape proposals that respond to local priorities while delivering the homes our borough urgently needs.”

This is a fantastic start to the housebuilding plans. It will take time to build the homes – but we suspect that the Mayor will be watching progress like a hawk and making sure there is no delay. The Mayor is treating housing as an emergency which can be solved with the right political will behind it – a strategy now adopted by the new Labour Prime Minister.

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