Concerns Raised That A Warehouse Havering Council Plan To Turn Into Homeless Accommodation Could Be “Substandard”.

Local Democracy reporter Sebastian Mann today writes:

Concerns have been raised that a former guitar shop warehouse Havering Council plans to turn into homeless accommodation could be “substandard”.

Councillors greenlit a plan to convert Chesham House in Romford into 55 units in December, hoping to take the pressure off the strained housing sector.

Families would stay in a self-contained unit for between twelve and 24 months, which cabinet members claimed would save the town hall £7.9million over the next ten years.

But the controversial scheme was challenged by Havering Residents Association (HRA), Labour and Conservative councillors at an extraordinary meeting last night (8th January).

Plans to convert the top floor into nine flats were rejected back in November 2023, with the council saying that surrounding noise could impact residents.

Labour councillor Matthew Stanton said it would therefore stand to reason the proposed accommodation was unsuitable.

Fellow Labour member Jane Keane said she had ongoing casework with people who were in “substandard” accommodation and had stayed there “for longer than anticipated”.

Darren Alexander, assistant director of housing demand, said the council would not enter into an agreement with the National Housing Group, which owns the building, if it was in a sub-par condition.

He added that the council was paying significant amounts to keep at-risk residents in hotels, while using Chesham House would be far cheaper.

He said: “I have to balance that challenge [of the building’s quality] with the fact we don’t have homes and we don’t have [housing] supply.

“I have children staying in hotels longer than necessary. I don’t know what the long-term impact is going to be on those children, and I’m really concerned there will be some issues we can’t foresee.”

Keeping at-risk families in temporary accommodation is one of the biggest financial strains on Havering Council, which is run by the HRA.

The town hall overspent on accommodation by £6.1m last year. It is projecting a £75m shortfall for 2025/26, having borrowed £32.5m from the government to avoid effective bankruptcy last year.

Many of the details about the scheme are confidential, but Alexander said the council would only pay to furnish the units.

Leasing Chesham House will cost the council £8.4m and a further £6.5m in operating costs.

Havering Conservatives leader Keith Prince criticised the town hall for not giving members of the scrutiny committee access to the exempt papers.

He warned: “One of the main reasons given for councils failing is the lack of scrutiny, or the poor quality. How can we improve the quality of our scrutiny, if we’re not given the information we need to scrutinise?”

Exempt parts of public agenda cannot be discussed with members of the public or press in the chamber, but the committee can ask them to leave and enter a private session.

Patrick Odling-Smee, the director of the council’s ‘living well’ board, said the conversion would be subject to the regular planning process and a decision had not been made.

He also warned that the council could risk losing the building to another council, which he did not name, and the chance to house Havering residents in their own borough.

In December, he said the council would rather not use commercial property to accommodate homeless families, but various housing challenges had led them to this situation.

Several councillors raised concerns that other London borough councils could apply to house their own at-risk residents in Chesham House.

Alexander said that would only happen if Havering could not fill the building, which he said was unlikely. He indicated the town hall will need “two or three” more buildings to meet the current demand.

At the end of the meeting, councillors asked the leadership to consider waiting until planning permission is granted before signing the lease, and asked them to “establish the risks” of keeping people in Chesham House.

The scheme will be discussed by the cabinet at a further meeting.

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