Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Law review on barracks homes
‘Residents do not understand why such a large amount of housing is not available for local people to live in’
The Local Government Association is to look at how changes in the law could avoid a repeat of the situation which saw a London council outmuscle Canterbury for homes on the Howe Barracks site.
City council chief executive Colin Carmichael and leader Simon Cook complained to the LGA that it had been left with “an unfair and unplanned burden” after Redbridge Council was able to move 147 families to the former army homes off Littlebourne Road.
In May, the Kentish Gazette revealed that Redbridge had outbid Canterbury for the houses, which are owned by private property firm Annington.
This happened despite the fact Canterbury has more than 2,000 names on its housing waiting list.
A petition was started on the government’s website in an attempt to reverse the outcome.
LGA chairman Lord Porter told the council that “there were lessons that could be learned from the council’s experience and that the movement of people needed to be effectively planned and managed”.
In his response to the council, he said: “The LGA will seek to lead this as part of our work on the future services for preventing homelessness and adapting to welfare reform, and will investigate how legislative change may help enable this.”
Cllr Cook said: “We’re pleased that the LGA agrees this is a matter of concern and we’ll be working closely with them over the coming months.
“It’s a complex situation, but we are clear that without any action, further problems will occur.
“Local residents do not understand why such a large amount of housing is not available for our own people to live in and we share their concern. A law change could address this and we’ll continue to push for this through the LGA.”
The first families from Redbridge started moving into the homes on the decommissioned army base at the end of June.
They included Turkish Kurd Ismail Darioglu and his wife and two children, who came to the UK three years ago after fleeing persecution in Turkey.
They have been in temporary accommodation in east London ever since and said they were happy to move to Canterbury.
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