Lambeth Council has built only seventeen council houses in the last four years – despite an election promise by Lambeth Labour that it would build 1,000 before the May 2018 local elections.
A Brixton Buzz Freedom of Information request confirms what many housing campaigners in the borough have suspected: the Lambeth Labour spin of 950 council houses simply isn’t true.
Our FOI asked:
“Please can you tell me how many council houses with a secure council tenancy Lambeth Council has built between June 2014 and March 2018.”
The response has come back:
“There were 17 properties.”
Our FOI has also revealed that no council houses with an ‘affordable’ rent have been built by Lambeth Council in the same period.
The failed election pledge from the Lambeth Labour 2014 election manifesto promised:
This is a line that the local Labour party was still trotting out in 2016.
It was surprising to see this deceptive approach appear once again in the 2018 Lambeth Labour manifesto:
“At the last council election we pledged to build 1,000 extra homes at council rent by 2019. By early 2018 we had over 950 homes completed, being built or already approved by Lambeth’s cabinet.”
The 933 missing council houses appear to be on the six estates that Labour wants to regenerate. These will be managed by Homes for Lambeth, rather than Lambeth Council. Residents will not be offered a secure council tenancy.
Lambeth Labour Councillors use the term “council houses” and “homes for council-level rent” interchangeably. They are very different types of tenancy.
The former means a home with a secure council tenancy, whereas the latter means a home with a standard assured tenancy, with no rights of a secure tenancy.
Hundreds of genuine council houses with a secure tenancy will be bulldozed as part of the estate regeneration programme. Lambeth Labour has been working with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to try and reduce the likelihood of tenant ballots.
Speaking about estate regeneration at his party’s conference last year, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn declared:
“Too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing, as private developers move in and tenants and leaseholders are moved out.”
Great to have @jeremycorbyn in Lambeth & to talk about @LambethLabour fighting the housing crisis with 1000 extra homes at council rent pic.twitter.com/u7Pn0I1Vv1
— Matthew Bennett (@CllrMattBennett) December 15, 2016
Having made housing the key issue for the local elections on 3rd May, it is decent to get clarification on one of the main pledges made by Lambeth Labour.
The local Labour party has had four years to honour this election promise. It appears that is has fallen significantly short.
The other side of the picture is how many council homes are being sold, over & above the Right-to-buy cases. People’s Audit found council housing stock reduced by 410 units in 2015/16, only 171 were RTB. Why is the council selling council housing when there are 23,000 people on the housing waiting list??
I’d like to know how many council houses/flats Lambeth has LOST?
I’ve been in this country for nearly 11 years, always lived in this borough, 6 years ago I had my son, and from the hospital I was drop at the Lambeth council, that’s when my nightmare started. I was place in a hostel and forgotten over there, till I went back there asking what was happening,the answer? Sorry but we don’t have any property(liars) couse I know I girl that as lived here for less than 9 years and not only she got here council flat after 6 month she was also able to gain a new one just like that ….And me after I’ve spent 1year in an hostel I’m still in temporary accommodation, with my asthmatic son but hey I don’t bring money to the borough so who cares right? Long story short Lambert needs to do their job such as be aware of empty property be aware of illegal subletting(a big thing in this borough) but mostly needs to scrap this mafia/corruption that there is .
That’s because they’re too busy passing planning for an ABBA nightclub on land with a covenant for social housing rather than building the homes we so desperately need. #StopMammaMiaTheParty