Pimlico affordable homes near completion. Will it ease the social housing crisis?

Westminster city Council has announced that more than thirty affordable new homes are nearing completion in Pimlico. On Thursday a  topping out ceremony was held celebrating the construction of 39 new apartments in Pimlico. Representatives from the Dolphin Square Foundation, Westminster City Council, Wates Living Space, and CityWest Homes attended.  Construction  is scheduled to be completed in Summer 2013.

 The development on Moreton Street has been built by Wates Living Space from the Dolphin Square Foundation. Thirty-one of these new homes will be  available at intermediate rents in Westminster, with an additional eight homes available for private rent by the housing association. The building is planned around a central, glass covered courtyard, and includes a landscaped roof garden accessible to all residents. Internally, the homesl meet modern standards of central London accommodation, including the latest in energy efficiency technology.

The homes will be allocated to people who either live or work in Westminster and need to live close to where they work, providing them with well designed homes at an affordable price. 

Cllr Jonathan Glanz, Westminster City Council's Cabinet Member for Housing and Property, said:

 "Westminster is in need of a range of new homes of different types and tenures, to encourage and retain mixed communities in our city.

 "These new homes will be equipped with the latest energy efficiency measures and will be available at intermediate rents, helping to ensure that Westminster is not just a place for the very rich or the very deprived, but those on average incomes also."

 "I am glad this development has reached this milestone of its construction, and I look forward to the completion of the scheme this summer."                                                                                                                                                             There are 2,084 households on the waiting list for social housing in Westminster. Westminster Council has been unable to provide figures revealing how many households waiting in B&B accomodation are from Pimlico. Westminster City Council and City West Homes own the freehold of 8,910 leasehold properties and as many as 3,412 of these may have tenants. Private sector landlords are therefore proving housing in properties which may  once have been occupied by Westminster Council tenants.