Homes for Lambeth to be brought back under control of council after ‘very poor’ performance

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A town hall will shut down its own housing company after it started work on just 65 homes in five years.

Homes for Lambeth – which was set up by Lambeth council as a fully owned company in 2017 – will be brought back under the direct control of the council.

Homes for Lambeth [HfL] promised to build more than 1,000 homes by 2025 and start construction of 670 of them by the end of 2022, in its business plan from 2020. But work on most of these promised homes never began.

An independent report into affordable housing in the borough commissioned by the Labour-run council branded HfL’s attempts at building homes as “very poor”.

The review, led by retired civil servant Lord Kerslake, recommended that Lambeth council bring the 69-person HfL team back in-house. Lambeth has accepted its recommendations.

The report, published last week, said: “In 2017, HfL was allocated £55m in AHP [Affordable Homes Programme] 2016-23 grant to start 912 affordable homes.

“At the time, this was the biggest AHP allocation granted to a council in London.

“However, reflecting progress on affordable housing delivery since 2017, HfL has reduced its original allocation by £52.7m – a 95 per cent reduction in grant – and now has £2.3m remaining to start 87 affordable homes before the programme ends in March 2023.”

If the homes are not completed before that date, HfL will have to reduce its grant even further.

The report went on to criticise Homes for Lambeth’s management over the planned rebuild of six estates in the borough.

Branding communication with residents on the estates “poor, inconsistent and disjointed,” it said the council had not properly consulted with people whose homes could be bulldozed.

The report said the council should accelerate the rebuild of three estates for which plans were most advanced – Westbury in Clapham, Knights Walk in Kennington and the South Lambeth estate in Stockwell.

But the report called on Lambeth to “prioritise” dealing with repairs over demolition on three of the less advanced estate rebuild programmes: Central Hill in Gipsy Hill, Cressingham Gardens in Tulse Hill and Fenwick in Clapham.

Councillor Danny Adilypour, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for sustainable growth and new homes, said: “We’ve made clear that this administration is determined to listen where mistakes have been made in the past and to act on them and this report is a key step towards doing that.

“While there have been successes through our existing programme and Homes for Lambeth, including more than 230 new homes at council rent that local families have moved into, other schemes have moved too slowly and we want to do more.

“We will bring Homes for Lambeth in-house over the next couple of years as its existing sites conclude, including the further 55 new council rent homes that are under construction.

“And we will set up an in-house team to take forward other sites that are currently planned across the borough which will deliver these genuinely affordable family homes that local people need.”

Pictured top: Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton (Picture: Google Street View)