Harlow regeneration boss delighted with council house building plans
Harlow Council / Tue 22nd Feb 2022 pm28 01:52pm
THE PORTFOLIO holder for regeneration has welcomed the progress made in building council homes in Harlow.
YH met councillor Dan Swords in Bushey Croft (opposite William Martin school) where a number of houses are close to completion.
Cllr Swords also detailed the ongoing plans that recent investment by the government has helped boost.
Anonymous
2022-02-22 14:36:43
Is there a completion date?
Clare Harrison McCartney
2022-02-22 16:56:00
Please build more bungalows. Thank you.
Molly Buckle
2022-02-22 17:29:06
What a change. A dynamic council actually doing what was promised and what was needed for so long. Such a contrast to the previous tired, ineffective Labour administration. Let’s then get the town centre regenerated. Well done and keep up the good work!
Pat Roberts
2022-02-22 17:47:24
Ermmm! Molly, I thought it was the last administration that started the Bushey Croft scheme......!
Bob
2022-02-22 18:18:04
it was the labour administration that started this project to provide homes for social rent. Tories trying to take the credit. Was cllr sword going to lay down and stop the housing at Purford Green School, I don't think so
Jenny Clark
2022-02-22 18:32:13
Pat and Bob, the facts are that Labour in almost 10 years completed no new council homes. They lost grants through incompetence and rushed out and spent (wasted) £12.6 million buying houses on the open market at 4 times the build cost! They then had to spend £ several million restoring them. Because they bought them they were not eligible for a government new homes bonus. Who paid for this debacle? Good old muggings , Harlow taxpayers. You could not make up the unbroken chain of incompetence of Harlow Labour. The new Council know what they are doing and are doing what people voted them in for: cut tax, build new homes for local people, fix the environment and regenerate the town centre. They have done more in 10 months than Labour in 10 years. This town is on the up. We can’t afford to let Labour clowns back in.
Connie
2022-02-22 18:40:17
Harlow Labour should hang their Momentum heads in shame for their total failure to build houses and to improve the town centre. In Harlow, Labour = FAILURE!
Nicholas Taylor
2022-02-22 19:25:51
I of course as leader of the Harlow Alliance Party are no fan of Labours, they did get many things wrong, but you cannot keep throwing out the lie that the Labour Council did not build any council homes in the last 10 years. Go down and ask residents in Riley Mews and Foster Court in Old Harlow who occupy homes built by the council in 2015 what they think of that. The scheme at Bushey Croft was started by the Labour administration (albeit having mis-led residents living nearby), it is a bit rich for Cllr Swords to be standing in front of them taking some form of credit, when they are nearing completion. As for the hundreds of new homes being promised, Labour's plan also included sites for over 200. We wait to see what the Tories plan is before commenting further. As for regenerating the town centre, well apart from some shrub containers along Broadwalk, there is no evidence of any regeneration yet.
Connie
2022-02-22 19:41:10
Dear Nicholas, I stand corrected, but what I said about Labour not building anything, at least in the past 5 years and recklessly buying houses on the open market is true. I have met Cllr Swords and his drive and passion to deliver for Harlow are without doubt. The new council has passed a budget announcing the biggest council house building programme in over a generation. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt unless we have reason not to. However, so far so good.
Pat Roberts
2022-02-22 20:14:42
Cllr Swords works hard, but I wish people would get the simple facts right when they comment.
Kim Oconnor
2022-02-22 21:18:22
They are building housing association which are private. Theses are not council.
Connie
2022-02-22 22:24:55
Kim O’Connor says whom? Check your facts. Cllr Swords said Council houses at the lowest possible rents. How much clearer do you need it?
Nicholas Taylor
2022-02-22 22:25:06
Kim, they are council houses at council rent levels.
Neil Warner-Baker
2022-02-23 07:19:32
Today the conservative Council will vote though the Eastern Stort Crossing, a huge elevated flyover built on top of massive pipes, These pipes Will become our SOCIAL HOUSING, They, Dan Swords and Mike Hardware in particular have been warned! ... Rough sleepers, Drug addicts? The dispossessed? Anyone with a hacksaw or cordless angle grinder can set up shop... Oh I warn you all now. what will be the policing cost? How many will die if caught in there during our frequent flash floods... DON'T LET THIS BE THE LEGACY OF OUR CONSERVATIVE Administration. They can Stop this
geoff turner
2022-02-23 08:36:15
harlow homes for harlow families? thats got to be a joke harlow homes for london overspill more like
gary roberts
2022-02-23 08:37:41
Social housing, affordable housing are terms for the birds today sadly. What I want to see is the council stating clearly that the right the buy council homes is abolished otherwise "council housing" will be a footnote in history books of the future. Will that commitment come from the current council? No, I have asked and silence indicates the answer, sadly. So with over 4,000 people on the housing waiting list council housing will a dream never to materialise in this town again!
Nicholas Taylor
2022-02-23 09:28:18
Gary, for a number of reasons, Tory Government policies have placed a straightjacket on Councils for the last 40 years, to many to mention here. The fact is, that even with the the boom in Council house building being promised by the Tories locally, our Council will still have less homes than they did in 2012. Whilst they continue to build homes that can be subsequently bought by a sitting tenant, these new homes will in due course be sold. Only the Harlow Alliance Party have said that every home they build should be for older or impaired tenants so that they fall outside the Right To Buy Legislation. The homes vacated could then be re-let to families in need of a larger home. There are at least 1500 larger homes in Harlow occupied by just one or two persons.
Kim Oconnor
2022-02-23 09:38:44
Can council confirm that theses are council houses and not housing association which are private.???????
Connie
2022-02-23 10:38:56
KimO’Connor. Please read the article and listen to the interview. It says COUNCIL HOUSES. As for comments regarding the Right to Buy. This not a matter for local councils; it is a legal right under Statute. Nicholas Taylor is wrong in saying this has been a Tory policy for the past 40 years. It was also supported by both the Blair and Brown Labour governments. The current council is embarking on the biggest council house building programme for decades after Labour’s dismal efforts.
Kim Oconnor
2022-02-23 11:44:09
Connie, if you disagree with my comments, please just ignore it. We are not on same page. Harlow councils are calling them council houses , which in fact are housing association, which are private. Now I know this to be true.
Kim Oconnor
2022-02-23 11:50:12
It said council housing. Council s are calling them council housing. But infact it's housing association which are private. Connie please stop responding to my comments.
Nicholas Taylor
2022-02-23 13:51:09
Connie, but the Right to Buy HAS been Tory policy for 40 years (1980 RTB Legislation), indeed in the last decade they increased the discounts given to encourage more tenants to buy. I did not say anything about Labour policy, you would be right to say they did nothing about it when they were in power. We await to hear the details of the Tories plan, remembering that Labours plan did include the building of over 200 homes during the local Plan period. No good so far!
Connie
2022-02-24 07:21:43
Labour also planned the HGGT project and the Stort crossings, and voted for it no less than 7 times but then conveniently forgot. The Council houses are probably the same. They did the same regarding the Purford Green development. They are both cynical and inept. The new administration has pledged £26 m for new Council house building. Let’s see them start to deliver on this.
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