Nine London boroughs have been allocated a new £145m tranche of Decent Homes funding which will be used to cover upgrades to thousands of council-owned properties.

 

London Mayor, Boris Johnson announced the money today which is geared towards refurbishing various aspects of council housing in the capital including roofs, wiring, bathrooms and kitchens.

 

Projects in the scheme will be carried out by City Hall’s Re:New support team which deals with all improvements (especially energy efficiency improvements) of Greater London’s council housing stock.

 

The boroughs to benefit from the £145m investment are: Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Haringey, Tower Hamlets, Camden, Lambeth, Kingston upon Thames, Southwark, and Sutton.

 

There was a bidding process for the fund which required applicants to add new housing to their existing estates so that the work carried out by Re:New was “not seen in isolation to the overall estate regeneration potential”.

 

The delivery of the scheme will depend on the stage each council’s Decent Homes programme is at, with the £145m representing an additional sum on top of the capital’s £821m Decent Homes allocation over the past four years.

 

Johnson said: “As London’s population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, and we strive to double the number of new homes being built across the capital, maintaining the quality of London’s essential existing housing stock is vital.”

 

“These improvement works, in those homes in most urgent need of repair, are essential to ensure a decent quality of life for thousands of Londoners.”

 

It's envisaged that this will further increase the pressures on the construction industry in the South East, as more resources are consumed both in terms of skilled construction worker and construction products and supplies used to carry out the refurbishments accross the city.