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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 01 May 2009

Tackling overcrowding

• YOUR article (300 council homes are left empty, Friday April 24) provided a misleading picture of how many council homes are actually empty in Westminster.
Many homes are classed as empty because they are being developed or about to be relet to people on our housing waiting list and certainly haven’t just been left by the council.
In Pimlico, for example, an entire block at Peabody Avenue is empty because construction work is about to begin to transform it into 55 much-needed, affordable, homes.
More than 30 homes at Peabody Buildings at Abbey Orchard Street, Victoria, have just undergone major repairs and are about to relet and 15 flats at Leonora House, Lanark Road in Maida Vale, are being rebuilt as 21 new affordable homes for older people.
We are not “failing to get on top of this issue” and once a home becomes empty we relet it an average of 25 days. During this time, an inspection will take place to check if the property is safe, if any repairs should be carried out and also to notify the future tenant of their new home.
Finally, I would also like to reassure your readers that we are tackling overcrowding and have started to offer larger homes to 40 families who live in the most overcrowded conditions in the city.
This is part of a five-year plan, which will see every family on our current waiting list who lives in cramped homes offered alternative larger accommodation.
Steve Moore
Deputy Director of Housing
Westminster City Council

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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