Please tell us about projects you know of that are intended to provide fair housing in Tower Hamlets.
Several projects we know about to create safe, secure homes, that is to say, fair housing for local people are being progressed by local grassroots organisations in Tower Hamlets. One project, sponsored by The Hill Group is to provide housing for the homeless, and the other project, sponsored by London Community Land Trust is to provide affordable housing in association with local organisations.
HOMELESS HOUSING PROJECT
The Hill Group has offered to donate 12 small modular homes to local organisations in Tower Hamlets for use as housing for the homeless while permanent homes are being found for them. You can read more about the Hill Group at https://hill.co.uk/ and see pictures of the well designed and solid modular homes at https://solohaus.co.uk/. The Hill Group is donating the modular homes in gratitude for the success their company has had as a regional housing developer. A local organisation is currently looking for a suitable site in or near Shadwell where the homes can be located. The great thing about these units is that they can be placed on an “in the meantime” site for a short period, such as 5 to 10 years, then moved to another location when the land is needed.
CABLE STREET PROJECT
The Cable Street Project is intended to provide about 40 affordable homes for people with a current association to Tower Hamlets, and particularly an association to the local area. It is being run by londonclt.org and guided by local organisations that are associated with citizensuk.org. The apartments will be a mix of sizes from 1 to 4 bedrooms. The conditions of sale for the apartments will forever keep them related to the average income in the local area; these are affordable homes, not speculative investments. If you are interested, send an email to info@fairhousing.uk
Here is how a member of the project steering group described the project …
The Shadwell affordable housing campaign sprang from a group of local people who wanted more safe, warm, affordable homes in Shadwell – houses that would be truly affordable for people in the area, that would let us stay near our friends, our work and our families. Houses that we’d be proud to call homes and that will remain affordable into the future.
The journey started in 2016 with a Walk for Affordable Housing around the local area, looking for unused land. One site we identified was just a short walk from St George’s in the East Church where the steering group meets. Next to the railway was a fenced off area of scrubland on the corner of Cannon Street Rd and Cable Street, owned by Transport for London.the
Since then, we’ve worked with the London CLT to tailor a bid to build these homes, and we held a planning meeting to discuss the potential layout of the homes; and discuss people’s priorities for housing. We also held a stall in the nearby Watney Market, speaking to local people about their experiences of housing and their aspirations for a community land trust. We’re building on the success of the bid to talk with more people at our churches, our Mosque, and our schools about community land trusts, so that good quality housing is the reach of everyone in our community.
On 22nd March 2018, Shadwell campaigners joined with campaigners from Shadwell Citizens to gather at City Hall and hand in our bid.
In November 2018, we held a public meeting to draw up a Community Brief together, stating our vision for the site. We used this to tender for an architect, and representatives of the group shortlisted four architects to invite to a Choose the Architect event on 17 March 2019 at St George-in-the-East Church. Nearly fifty people cast their vote for the architect they wanted to work with to design these homes, the winner was Levitt Bernstein.
In the summer of 2020, we entered into a funding agreement with the GLA to develop proposals for the site.
Find more information about the designs for this project in our latest Annual Report.We are currently working on the next steps for this site; if you would like to get involved here, please get in touch via email info@londonclt.org.