Romford MP And Residents Anger As New Housing Blocks In Romford Bought By Newham Council To House Their Families In Need.

“We have so many families here who need to be housed and yet brand new housing blocks in Romford have been bought by Newham Council instead, this isn’t right, surely we should be housing Havering residents first?”, Tom, a Romford resident told the Havering Daily.

The brand new housing blocks on North Street, that comprise of 75 flats were sold by private developers to Newham Council, who need to house families who are in temporary accommodation. This has caused much unhappiness to local residents who are aware of the challenging housing situation Havering residents also face.

“I’m not knocking anyone who needs a home, but surely as a borough, we should have the ability to house Havering residents first? It’s not the council’s fault, these are private developers so they can sell to who they want. But It is always the people who lose out and once again Havering residents are left behind and being sent out of the borough!”.

The news has also angered the Member of Parliament for Romford-Andrew Rosindell MP who told the Havering Daily: “It is utterly unacceptable that Havering should be treated as a dumping ground by other parts of “Greater London”. Our community has always stood on its own two feet, and we will not tolerate the quiet erosion of our local services and identity by bureaucratic decisions made behind closed doors. The people of Havering deserve better than to have their borough used as a backdoor solution to problems created elsewhere.”

Housing shortages are an issue across many London boroughs due to an ever increasing population, but the selling of these new properties by private developers, mean the council has no say whatsoever in who they are sold to.

Cabinet Member for Housing- Councillor Paul MGeary, told the Havering Daily: “We have no control over who private developers sell their housing to. They will sell to the highest bidder and there is nothing we can do.

“Anything we build as a Council is only for people on our housing register, who have lived here for six years. Sadly we do not have any say on private developers and they will sell to whoever pays the most.”

This is an ongoing challenging situation that needs to addressed.

Tom finished: “The number of people in Havering is increasing rapidly, we can see that, and across London which is why all these flats are going up. But at what cost and when will it stop?”

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