Lewisham’s social housing waiting list could be eradicated with new plan

A housing company has published a white paper which claims Lewisham could more than eradicate its social housing waiting list – saving the thousands of people languishing on it for years – with a new brownfield site plan.

EDAROTH – an acronym of Everybody Deserves A Roof Over Their Head – published the white paper which argues that building affordable homes on unused brownfield land in Lewisham would completely clear the waiting list.

The housing company calculates that 12,572 homes could be built on the 110.8 hectares of Lewisham’s unused brownfield land. This would be enough homes to house the 10,183 people on the housing waiting list, reducing it by 123.4 per cent.

The white paper calls for greater incentives to unlock the land such as increased central government funding for development, removal of regulatory red tape, and help to reduce the costs associated with building on brownfield sites.

The paper also argues that unlocking brownfield sites would also drastically reduce the cost of keeping people in temporary accommodation.

Misha Hobby, a mother of four who has been living in a two bedroom temporary accommodation in Burnt Ash Road, Lewisham, for more than four years says the council “should do whatever it takes” to reduce the housing waiting list.

“It’s just getting worse and worse,” she said. “It’s like we’ve been left here to rot. No one looks after us.”

Ms Hobby has not had hot water to the property for more than a year, if the family want to bathe they have to fill the bath up with water from saucepans and a kettle.

“No one wants to be in temporary accommodation, especially without hot water. I feel like I’m living in World War Two. I’ve given up.”

Ms Hobby claims she was told that after four years she would move up to the next band on the waiting list but this has failed to happen. She join thousands of other people waiting in limbo for a firm housing offer that would ease the “pressure” in her life.

Mark Powell, managing director at EDAROTH said: “When it comes to acquisition of brownfield land for development, our main target to date has been land owned by institutions such as local authorities and housing associations, who might otherwise have considered the land too complex or unviable to deliver.

“The incentive we can propose is that our end-to-end offer helps with that because we do all the work to identify the optimum solution.

“As regards the issue of density in Lewisham, it has been established that putting housing where existing infrastructure and amenities are, particularly close to good public transport, is better for residents.”

Lewisham councillor Brenda Dacres said: “Like the rest of London we are faced with a housing crisis and recognise the need to deliver new housing at pace.

“We are doing so through our housebuilding programme – Building for Lewisham – and by pushing private developers to include more social housing in new developments.

“Over the last five years, more than 1,200 new social homes were completed or had started on site in the borough, helping to tackle the housing crisis and reduce our waiting list.”

“Lewisham council is progressing its new Local Plan which sets out how the borough will change over the next 20 years and meet its housing need, deliver local jobs, and provide the associated infrastructure required to support good growth.

“[The] plan sets out site allocations identifying where we will deliver housing to meet our targets of 1,667 homes per year and sets a strategic target of delivering 50 per cent of those homes as affordable.”

Lewisham council were unable to provide comment on Ms Hobby’s housing before publication.

Pictured top: Misha Hobby and the basement which flooded in November last year (Picture: Misha Hobby)