All posts in the topic Scandal of Newham's secret community (Short link)
Summary
- There are 7 posts — by 7 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by carol price at Jun 02 13:42 UTC
Thinking a bit about Newham, this Sunday morning, I googled recent news from Newham and ran across this article. Scandal of Newham's secret community http://tinyurl.com/6dkelq "Vital public services, already stretched beyond their limits, are being put under even greater pressure by illegal 'homes' springing up across the borough." Is this a real issue? It seems at odds with what one would expect, given the impact the Olympics is supposed to be having on real estate. I suppose high housing costs might encourage illegal housing, but I would also expect that all the focus on Newham real estate would make such developments difficult to pull-off. Is this a real story? If so, what's going on? FYI - Here is a quick link to recent news items in Google News about Newham: http://tinyurl.com/63dwew Thanks, Tim Erickson E-Democracy.Org St. Paul, Minnesota - USA
Tim asks what is going on and are there really illegal homes springing
up throughout Newham.
You will note the article referred to mentions additional building not
buildings, this is almost certainly refering to adding extra rooms on
to the back of an existing property. This is an activity for which
permission should be sought from the Council but I think its only
where properties are let out on a room by room basis by a private
landlord that this amounts to new "homes" rather than simply larger
ones.
There are quite strong controls over multioccupied property and if
they are 5 or more people living as more than one household in a
property the property needs to be licensed by the Council. There are
very strong penalties for not being licenced namely a £20,000 fine and
the right for tenants to apply for a refund of rent. I would be
interested to know if this had ever been enforced.
This said in areas of London where gardens are bigger than they tend
to be in Newham developers can build new properties in gardens and
Councils cannot object although building controls still apply. A quick
google shows this is a topical issue with a move to introduce a bill
to protect gardens recorded in Hansard for 18/3/08 (by a coincidence
of recursion the speech refers to google itself!) The second reading
is on 13th June.
You might also be interested in the fact that in some parts of Newham
gardens are being used to accomodate people. There is anecdotal evidence
that people are sleeping in tented comunities - these are generally, though
not exclusive, European workers.
This is a difficult issue for the Local Authority to address; however, while I
was a council member, I did report a build in a back garden of a property in
Forest Gate. The build was easily seen from a footbridge and it was huge (the
size of a modest bungalow).
During the construction phase I saw a full bathroom and a kitchen installed.
From my limited understanding of planning law I was of the opinion that there
was no-way the owners could have been given permission to build what was in
effect a new residential property in their garden.
I tried to check this out within the Council structure. At first I was told
that as I was not on the planning committees it was none of my business. When I
protested I was told I could not have any info as it was nothing to do with the
ward I represented.
I persevered, and eventually I was informed that there had been planning
permission as the build that was requested was a small games room. There is
no-way the building that has been put up is just a games room.
Needless to say, the building is still there and it looks like a sizeable group
of young men are living in it.
This practice of erecting sheds in the backgarden to accomodate extra people
living in the house has been known to the authorities for a long time.
It has now taken on a new dimension. Take the familiar White Transit Van, park
it on the front drive and there you have another two beds for a good nights
sleep. This is not anecdotal it is a fact.
Come to Newham where we have plenty of space in our backgardens or even the
front drive to bed you down.
Well, when the local authority charges 355 per week for for a 1,2 or 3
bedroom home for the most of all vulnerable people, what choice do people
have?
2008/6/2 Charles Buhler <<email obscured>>:
I think it is the same for everyone that doesnt own their own home. I have 2
daughters both live with partners , one has 3 children the other has none .
They both pay high rents the one with 3 children lives in Essex and she has to
pay water rates and sewerage rates as well ,..both find things hard , but what
exactly is meant by most vunerable ...the most vunerable would surely be
entitiled to help with rent , if they are not then they are in the same
situation as many other people , but however anyone is fixed I think that
tents/ sheds/vans and what ever else is used to house people in back/front
gardens or on any other spare bit of land is disgusting .Newham is becoming
dirtier and more over crowded by the day,with people continually using the
street as a rubbish dump. large ,ugly, unsuitable ,extentions are built on the
back of houses without first obtaining planning permission, maybe we should
stop encouraging people to come and live here if they cannot be housed in the
proper way.