End in sight for ‘scandal’ of street left to fall into disrepair

Action is finally set to be taken on the “scandal” of a street of empty homes left to go to rack and ruin at the former Howe Barracks in Canterbury.

The 35 houses in Sobraon Way - owned by Annington Homes but still leased to the Ministry of Defence - have been unoccupied for almost a year as hundreds of families languish on the council’s housing waiting list.

In October the Gazette exposed the dire situation, which has seen the homes suffer huge damage at the hands of vandals, making them uninhabitable.

But there is hope they could be put to good use as the MOD says it intends to give the homes back to the property company by the end of March.

The city council is now anxiously waiting to hear if it can lease them.

The authority previously bid for a separate lot of former Army homes at the old barracks site, but Annington accepted a more lucrative offer from the London borough of Redbridge, which moved its own tenants into them.

The city council has criticised the delays in making the remaining empty homes available, with leader Cllr Simon Cook previously accusing the MOD of “utterly negligent behaviour”.

“Put simply, our view is that the MOD has denied many families a home and they should be ashamed of what’s happened,” he said.

This week, city council spokes- man Rob Davies said: “We have already had a discussion with Annington to express our interest in doing a deal with them to secure these homes.

“Further contact will be made nearer the hand-back date to reinforce our desire to open discussions. The one thing that has changed is that these homes have fallen into a state of even greater disrepair than when this housing scandal was exposed last October.

“The cost of repairing them is rising all the time and the negligence of the MOD in failing to tackle the issue continues unabated.”

Annington spokesman Tim Danaher says the homes are due to be formally handed back to the company on March 27.

“Our contractors will be on site the following day to assess the damage and the programme of works needed to get them back to a proper state and back into use as soon as possible,” he said.

“There is a lot to do because clearly, it will not be a simple refurbishment.”

But Mr Danaher would not make any commitment on who the homes would be offered to.

“What we can’t say at this stage is how long that refurbishment work will take or what the future arrangements will be,” he added.

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