February chill brings back 14 year old lunacy to Tower Hamlets Counc il

AADHIKAROnline will examine the homeless crisis in Tower Hamlets and how the Council has been CAUSING a lot of the homelessness in the East End borough,...

[To be c continued]

Thursday, February 12, 1998 Published at 15:43 GMT UK Housing the homeless - 200 miles away Housing offered in "difficult-to-let" estates Tower Hamlets council in East London has come up with an unusual solution to its housing problem - it wants homeless people to move 200 miles away. The plan is to offer 900 empty homes in Hull in north east England to people on the London council's housing waiting list. Hull City Council is considering whether to change its current housing policy to broaden the range of people who are allowed to inhabit council homes. Cllr Abdus Shukur: "If people don't want to move it will stop there." A quarter of the population of Tower Hamlets are waiting to be rehoused. But Councillor Abdus Shukur, Chair of Housing, says no-one will be coerced into moving. "The reality is that people will only move to boroughs that they want to. If people want to move to Hull then they will have the opportunity to do so. If they do not want to move, then that's where it stops," he said. Tower Hamlets originally wrote to 21 councils around England but has received a very poor response. It insists that it was merely coincidence that Hull City Council was considering changing the criteria of its housing policy. The full text of the letter sent to councils around England appears under the 'Related Stories' heading. Chris Holmes, Director of Shelter: worried by the plans The move is causing concern at the housing charity Shelter. The director, Chris Holmes, said: "Clearly there's a desperate shortage of housing in Tower Hamlets so anything to help relieve the pressure is welcome. "But I'm concerned that people are not coerced into accepting properties in Hull, particularly in hard-to-let estates. Just shipping people to other areas of the country is not the answer. We need to solve the problems of affordable housing in London." Chris Holmes voices Shelter's worries (12") Maggie Santos left London for Hull 10 years ago. She now works for the Hull Independant Housing Aid Centre and says that people need to know what they would be coming to. She said: "Hull is very different from London. People from Tower Hamlets need to see Hull before they come. The homes that Hull could offer are basically hard-to-let properties on out-of-city estates. Some of the estates, rightly or wrongly, aren't too popular with local people." Tower Hamlets has underlined that "there was never any question of penalising people on the waiting list who didn't take up a place in Hull." Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage ©