Promoting mixed communities in well-designed neighbourhoods, where people can access high quality, affordable housing
Meeting the Decent Homes standard
Hackney Homes, which manages the Council’s housing stock, was awarded two stars (out of three) and found to have promising prospects for improvement following their re-inspection in November 2008. This opens the door to up to £225 million in extra funding for the Decent Homes programme, bringing Council homes across the borough up to modern standards by replacing key features such as windows, kitchens and bathrooms. It can also include energy efficiency measures, such as roof, loft and wall insulation to help tenants to heat their homes more cost-effectively.
Council tenants also benefited this year from the Council passing on a reduction of half the expected rent increase for 2009/10, meaning a saving on average of over £120 per household.
As the largest social housing landlord in the borough, Hackney Homes is involved in many programmes to improve the life opportunities of its residents. Over the past year, this has included providing new youth clubs and activities on estates, including Kickz Sports and Nemesis Street Dance, and contributing work to support tenants back into training and employment. A pilot national Family Intervention programme is helping at risk families tackle their anti-social behaviour problems and retain their tenancy.
Hackney Homes also rolled out a programme of improvements to make estates safer and more attractive, and introduced new gardening projects.
A number of Hackney Homes play areas were awarded Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents ‘Gold’ awards for providing safe play areas for children. An ongoing programme of renewing estate lighting, safer door entry systems and upgraded CCTV is helping to reduce rates of burglary and crime.
Building affordable housing
The Council built over 800 affordable new homes last year, beating its target of 543. Around 350 of these were for social renting, 53 per cent of which have three or more bedrooms, for families.
Despite the economic downturn affecting many major housing regeneration projects across the country, construction work began on phase one of the major regeneration project at Woodberry Down.
This will see the first 117 new homes built to re-house existing residents. More than 4,500 new homes will be built in total through the programme.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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