Minister given taste of Haringey housing transformation
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Housing Minister Caroline Flint was given an insight into how £200million of government funding will benefit Haringey Council tenants during a visit to the borough on Friday 22 February.
Ms Flint toured the Tiverton Estate, N15, and was given the chance to look around tenant Roger Downer’s home, which has been completely refurbished through decent homes work by the council.
Similar work will now take place at the homes of thousands of tenants across the borough after the government gave Haringey £198.5million to improve its housing stock through the decent homes programme.
The funding – the largest discretionary award in the borough’s history – will enable the council’s arms length management organisation Homes for Haringey to replace roofs, rewire properties, introduce double glazing and install better insulation. Some outdated kitchens and bathrooms will also be replaced.
Ms Flint said:
“I had heard very good reports of the work that’s already been carried out in Haringey to modernise homes. I’m very pleased that we’ve now been able to give just under £200m to the council to extend these improvements across the borough.
“These things do take time but many people are going to benefit. It’s important now that the community is closely involved in what’s going to change in their neighbourhood.”
Cllr Isidoros Diakides said:
“The decent homes funding from the government is the best news in years for our council tenants.
“I was pleased to welcome the Housing Minister to Haringey to see at first hand what can be achieved through the decent homes programme, as well as get a sense of the scale of the work to come.
“I am now very much looking forward to working closely with our residents to deliver these major improvements to homes across Haringey.”
Mike Jones, Chair of Homes for Haringey’s Board, added:
“We are extremely pleased with our allocation of funding from the government. We have already started to seriously invest in bringing council stock up to the Decent Homes Standard, which means the proportion currently meeting the Decent Homes Standard has gone from 38 per cent to 58 per cent.
“With just over half of tenants’ homes already meeting the government's Decent Homes standard, it means that 7,000 tenants will be getting improvements and the rest will benefit from works to repair and replace items which fall below standard.”
Homes for Haringey is currently putting together a detailed timetable of works, based on a survey of work required in individual properties to bring them up to the decent homes standard.
The first pilot decent homes project went on site at the beginning of January and is due to be completed at the end of March.
Homes for Haringey will be hosting a ‘decent homes show’ on March 8 at Alexandra Palace. All council tenants are being invited along to see the range of products that will be used in the decent homes programme.
|back to topNotes:
- More than 7,000 of the 16,500 tenants’ homes that Homes for Haringey manages on behalf of Haringey Council will need some work done. The others already meet the government’s decent homes standard, which aims to ensure that all properties are warm, weatherproof and have reasonably modern facilities.
- More information can be found at www.homesforharingey.org.
Photos show:
- Top: Caroline Flint with Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Isidoros Diakides, Chair of The Bridge New Deal for Communities Lorne Horsford, tenant Doris Nixon and her children Matthew (older) and Samuel.
- Bottom: Caroline Flint with from left to right: Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Isidoros Diakides, Chair of The Bridge New Deal for Communities Lorne Horsford, and Haringey Council Leader Cllr George Meehan
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