Empty homes are being refurbished to house homeless families – just two years before the entire street is due to be demolished to make way for a new development.
Seven council-owned terraced houses in Holloway Street, opposite ASDA in Hounslow town centre, are being done up to provide much-needed temporary accommodation for the borough’s growing homeless population.
But neighbours in the road have asked why the council has not acted sooner to restore the properties, which have lain vacant for more than 20 years.
The two-bedroom homes were bought by the council in the late 80s when the site’s regeneration was first mooted. After housing families for a short period, they have been left to fall into disrepair ever since.
In 2009, the council was ordered to pay compensation to residents in the street for failing to be a ‘good neighbour’ and maintain its houses.
It announced last week that the homes were being refurbished by Tando Property Services and leased to the council, with the first families due to move in before Christmas.
The work is being funded by central government money to help local authorities reduce the number of families living in bed and breakfast accommodation.
Councillor Steve Curran, Hounslow’s cabinet member for housing planning and regeneration, said the work was possible due to new funding and greater certainty about when regeneration work at the site, known as the High Street Quarter would begin.
Barratt Developments was last month chosen as the council’s preferred developer to build a cinema, 400 homes and a number of shops and restaurants on the 5.3 acre site, just off Hounslow High Street.
Should the plans get the go-ahead, work is set to begin in April 2016 and be completed by July 2018.
Kate Smith, 77, has lived in the street her entire life and complained in the past about the council-owned properties being used by drug dealers and squatters who started fires. She welcomed work to restore the homes but said it should have been done much sooner. She claims the council previously told her restoration work would cost a prohibitive £82,000 per house.
“Why didn’t the council do this work years ago when it could have got more use out of the houses and made back the money it spent?” she said. “Instead, we had to put up with squatters and drug dealers in the street for years while the homes were left to rot.”
Hounslow Council’s cabinet this Tuesday agreed to buy the remaining 12 privately owned properties in the street at an estimated cost of £2.8million to make way for the new development. It has already begun discussions with the homeowners.
