71 Affordable Homes in Newham
The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, launched the borough’s latest affordable housing development designed for those on Newham’s housing waiting list. The Mayor welcomed residents to their new homes at The Didsbury in East Ham.
The six-storey development will house 148 new homes across two mirrored blocks to the south of East Ham Town Hall Annexe. 71 of the new one, two and three bedroom homes will be let by Populo Homes at London Affordable Rent to those on Newham Council’s housing waiting list. The 77 remaining homes are for private rent to help ease local housing pressures.
As part of her tour, the Mayor met with two local residents who had come to collect keys to their new affordable homes. Mayor Fiaz also met with Newham resident and apprentice Raphael Abifade who has recently completed an apprenticeship through the Council’s Our Newham Work programme. Raphael worked at The Didsbury throughout the project, undertaking several different tasks across the build and has now joined the construction contractor Bugler Developments team.
The development was built by Populo Living, Newham council’s wholly owned housing company. Populo is central to Newham Council’s Housing Delivery programme. Working closely alongside Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Populo is committed to ensuring 50 percent of all the homes it builds are at social rent levels. Newham Council plans to invest up to £1.2bn in Populo’s housing projects during the next 15 years. Populo is on course to deliver 7,400 homes by 2040 (with 70% of new homes at affordable rent levels). Populo currently has 622 homes under construction and this year plans to start construction on 190 new affordable homes; helping the Mayor to reach her target of 1,000 genuinely affordable council homes starts by May 2022.
Rokhsana Fiaz said: “I was delighted today to welcome two new residents to their new homes at The Didsbury, whose 71 new genuinely affordable homes help meet my promise to start building 1,000 new council-owned homes by May 2022. As Mayor, it is people like these I am elected to champion and that’s why I am committed to making sure Newham Council does all that it can to provide local people with the homes they deserve and can afford.
