New homes for homeless Lewisham families

Artist’s impression of the new Bampton Estate homes Pic: Lewisham Council

More than 70 much needed new council homes are to be built in Lewisham after the council planners approved a number of applications.

The successful proposals approved by the planning committee include 32 new council houses on Mayow Road in Perry Vale. Twenty-six flats will be offered to homeless families while six will be built as supported living for residents with learning difficulties or autism.

Addressing residents at Blackheath assembly earlier this month, the Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, said: “There is an acute housing crisis in Lewisham”. Ten thousand people are on the housing waiting list and over 2,000 are in temporary accommodation.

Egan’s own experience of homelessness as a child has shaped his approach to tackling the housing crisis in Lewisham. One of the Council’s top priorities is to deliver 1,000 new social homes by 2022.

Egan said: “Housing families in temporary accommodation is not an effective use of public money, and it’s not good for the people in that situation.”

Lewisham Council says that the supported living homes in Perry Vale will “help residents to live more independently in a safe, inclusive and integrated setting.”

Planned site for new homes on Mayow Road Pic: Google maps

Residents will also have access to a communal garden and on-site care. Plans are in place for the construction of a new special educational needs school on a site opposite the new homes.  

Cabinet member for housing Councillor Paul Bell said: “These homes reflect our determination to deliver a variety of local housing needs while generating a sense of place and identity for people within the borough.”

Elsewhere in the borough, planning has been approved for 39 new council homes in Bampton Green for residents over the age of 55.

Members of the Council’s planning committee unanimously voted to grant planning permission for the new council homes on the Bampton estate. The new homes will occupy a site currently used as a ball court and garages which the council say will be moved to another site on the Estate.

Councillor Bell said of the Bampton Green project: “We are making great progress in building new council homes. This development reflects our commitment to build high-quality, council homes throughout Lewisham for our residents.”

The council is currently regenerating a number of existing estates, maximising under-used or vacant sites and building new properties on sites such as the Brampton Estate and Mayow Road.

Construction on both sites is set to begin in the summer of 2020 and to be completed by spring 2022.

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