Tag Archives: Housing

‘Restructuring’ has housing workers facing £3,000 pay cut

Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, on the latest shocking cost-cutting measures being imposed on council staff Croydon Council could be heading for a series of strikes later this year, after senior managers at Fisher’s Folly moved to cut some … Continue reading

Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Fly tipping, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Susmita Sen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Ombudsman orders urgent review of council’s housing policies

Retired lawyer and former councillor JERRY FITZPATRICK on a breakthrough ruling for those on Croydon’s housing register with special medical needs In an important and hard-hitting decision, the Local Government Ombudsman has required Croydon Council to undertake a thorough review … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Health, Housing, Jerry Fitzpatrick | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

£1.5m government fund ‘targets’ Croydon in drugs strategy trial

Croydon is to receive £1,490,858 from the government’s drug strategy housing support fund, it was announced today. Croydon is one of only two London boroughs (the other is Westminster) included among 28 local authorities receiving the money, allocated from a … Continue reading

Posted in Crime, Croydon Council, Health, Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gove’s broadside at builders over their ‘ugly’ developments

Michael Gove, in his second spell as the Tories’ Levelling Up Secretary, has declared war against “ugly” buildings, in an effort to reduce opposition to residential developments. That could be bad news for the profit-hungry developers who seek to replace … Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Environment, Housing, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mayor Khan calls for ‘better, safer, fairer housing’ in London

Croydon Council could face financial penalties if it fails to keep its social housing up to higher standards, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has warned. City Hall holds the purse strings for billions of pounds of housing development funding, … Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Community associations, Croydon Council, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Regina Road Residents' Support Group, Sadiq Khan, South Norwood, Tom Copley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council ordered to pay £2,800 over homeless nightmare

Ombudsman discovers Croydon has 27 families in temporary B&B accommodation for longer than the six-week legal limit Croydon Council’s housing department, already under critical scrutiny in the aftermath of the Regina Road scandal, has been ordered to pay a mother … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Housing | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Council asks tenants: what do you want from repairs service?

Council tenants and leaseholders, together with members of the housing improvement board, have cautiously welcomed the latest Town Hall engagement exercise, intended to improve the pace and standards of the repairs service provided for the borough’s properties. The housing improvement … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Community associations, Croydon Council, Housing, Lynne Hale, Mayor Jason Perry, South Norwood, Susmita Sen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Earnings struggling to keep up with property price growth

House prices have continued to soar, and even outstripped people’s wage packets in some parts of the country, making it ever more difficult for first-time buyers People’s homes in one-third of Britain have “earned” more per hour in the past … Continue reading

Posted in Housing, London-wide issues | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ombudsman orders review of Croydon’s temporary housing

A cancer patient and her four children were ‘cooped up’ in a single room throughout the covid pandemic because council officials failed to check their own temporary accommodation policy Croydon Council has been forced to pay nearly £5,000 in compensation … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A first-time buyer’s guide to buying your first home

“Getting a first step on the housing ladder…” is among one of the most hackneyed clichés in modern Britain. Held up as some kind of “aspiration”, harking back to Thatcherism, the reality is that, often as not, buying a home … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Housing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Help to Buy fuels London’s house price inflation say Lords

A parliamentary report out today underlines that £29bn-worth of housing subsidies have simply helped to boost several Tory donors’ profits, reports our housing correspondent, BARRATT HOLMES The cost of an average home in Croydon increased by 4 per cent in … Continue reading

Posted in Bromley Council, Housing, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Merton, Planning, Southwark Council, Sutton Council, Wandsworth Council | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Covid pressures could see homelessness soar, warn boroughs

London faces the most severe homelessness crisis in the country, according to the capitals borough councils, as they face a “triple whammy” of upcoming risks over the summer, as lockdown restrictions and special covid-19 emergency aid for the homeless are … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Evolve, Housing, London Councils, Patricia Hay-Justice | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Permitted development sees soaring numbers of second homes

Any suggestion that the drive, by property speculators, developers and their architect mates, to over-develop Croydon with thousands of flats is in any way really intended at addressing the homelessness crisis can be readily dismissed, after government figures reveal that … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Housing, London-wide issues, Planning, Tom Copley | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Council threatens to quadruple Council Tax bills on empty flats

Our housing correspondent BARRATT HOLMES on the slow introduction of increased local taxes in an effort to deter the borough’s ‘executive apartments’ being used as investment vehicles and not as homes Absentee landlords with homes deliberately left vacant could face … Continue reading

Posted in Alison Butler, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Brick by Brick’s profitable Blairite response to Right to Buy

The tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire has, rightly, focused attention on safety around the nation’s low-cost housing. But underlining the lack of attention given to the conditions of such homes and the ongoing under-investment in council housing has been … Continue reading

Posted in Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Business, Chris Philp MP, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Housing, Jennifer Brathwaite, Lambeth Council, London-wide issues, Planning, Property, Southwark Council, Steve Reed MP, Taberner House, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Barwell bungles again with U-turn on social housing promise

WALTER CRONXITE reports on the latest Tory manifesto about-turn, this one delivered by Croydon’s very own gaffe-prone career politician Gavin Barwell, the Nimby Tory housing minister who has campaigned against building homes in his Croydon Central constituency, yesterday delivered the … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Sarah Jones MP | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Now Idris Elba gets angry with Tories over rising homelessness

BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, outlines the latest raft of Tory government cuts to benefits which will make yet more people homeless, and which have been supported by housing minister Gavin Barwell The role of Tory-led governments, and their current … Continue reading

Posted in Charity, Crisis Skylight Centre, Croydon Central, Croydon Nightwatch, Gavin Barwell, Housing | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Barwell adopts United Airlines approach to his housing ‘debate’

WALTER CRONXITE uncovers a Tory astroturfing exercise which has hand-picked the audience for a bogus housing ‘debate’ with the local MP Loyal Croydon Tory supporters of the government minister, Gavin Barwell, have adopted the ticketing practices of United Airlines ahead … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Mario Creatura | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Barwell admits Tories have broken promise on starter homes

BARRATT HOLMES, our housing correspondent, reports on a manifesto commitment which the government’s Nimby housing minister now says won’t be kept Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell, in his role as the housing minister, has confirmed that the Tory government has … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell, Housing | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Letting agent convicted of fraud over £15,000 of deposits

A letting agent – described by a Crown Court judge as being “thoroughly dishonest” – has been jailed for 19 months after making off with thousands of pounds of clients’ holding deposits. The trial of Thirugnanaselvam Damayantharan, of Demesne Road, … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Crime, Croydon Council, Housing, Trading Standards | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Rising property values widen gulf with Londoners’ wages

While Philip Hammond makes his hour-long Budget speech today, the price of an average home in Croydon will have gone up by nearly £5. Yet the Tory Chancellor is not expected to do anything which will really address the increasing … Continue reading

Posted in Housing, Planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

‘Ideological’ housing White Paper could add to homelessness

The head of a Croydon homelessness charity has today roundly criticised the government’s White Paper on housing for being too reliant on property developers, for “a preoccupation with ownership at all costs”, and for the “ideological imposition” of Tory right-to-buy … Continue reading

Posted in Brick by Brick, Business, Charity, Croydon Central, Croydon Nightwatch, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Location, Location, Location is seeking Croydon home-hunters

Posted in Activities, Housing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Minister Barwell lies on homelessness and shifts on Green Belt

WALTER CRONXITE on how a local MP has pirouetted 180 degrees around what he has stood for in the past Gavin Barwell, the Conservative MP for Croydon Central, smeared himself across the airwaves of Britain yesterday, apparently in an effort … Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Croydon Nightwatch, Environment, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Planning | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments