Waterloo Estate, Romford temporary homes planned by Havering Council

Councillor David Taylor told the Recorder that the proposal for Havering Council to build 18 modular temporary homes on the estate in Romford would be decided on by the cabinet in either December or January.

The Waterloo Estate was one of the 12 estate redevelopment projects announced by the council as part of its £1.2billion joint venture with Wates Residential in 2018.

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According to a report on the new modular home proposals, the estate is now scheduled for permanent development in five to seven years.

The public report describes the proposal containing 14 two-bedroom homes and four three-bedroom homes (Image: Havering Council) Cllr Taylor led the place overview and scrutiny sub-committee meeting on November 28 to discuss the proposal, aimed at reducing the need for the council to spend money on temporary hotel accommodation.

“The principle is not something I am against”, said Cllr Taylor.

“We have an urgent need to house people in the borough. If that land is going to be left as rubble for five to seven years then I am certainly not adverse to putting it to good use.”

Cllr Taylor told this paper though that he is “deeply concerned at the cost of this”.

The meeting heard each of the modular homes would be supplied at a cost of £200,000, with more money needed to provide infrastructure.

“The council already has a programme for purchasing homes on the open market,” Cllr Taylor said. 

“We were trying to gain an understanding of why you couldn’t just buy 18 more homes.

“So before we say whether this is a good or bad idea, we need to understand why we are spending more than the price of a family home to buy someone a temporary modular unit.”

Plans for homes on the Waterloo Estate (Image: Havering Council) Upon being quizzed on this by Cllr Taylor, Mark Butler, assistant director of regeneration and place shaping, said: “These (18 temporary homes) are supplementary to rather than instead of (homes on the open market). We are pursuing both of those avenues.

“This offers an opportunity also to use an underutilised site for that period and bring forward some housing provision.”

The council report said the proposed development will consist of 14 two-bedroom homes and four three-bedroom family homes.

Cllr Taylor said: “We have got a lot of new two-bed flats being built on the market and I can tell you the total costs of these units is significantly more than the costs of these flats.”

A CGI of how the properties may look (Image: Havering Council) Patrick Odling-Smee, director of Living Well, stated that the price of one of these proposed units will be £361,000, which he claimed “is not that much to buy properties in Havering these days”.

Cllr Taylor and the committee were left with questions still to ask as the meeting was concluded abruptly due to the closing of the town hall.

“Unfortunately, our scrutiny meeting was cut short which was frustrating. We were turfed out of the town hall at 9pm,” he explained.

“This meant we were not allowed to properly scrutinise this decision.”

A Havering Council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, some of the items on the agenda over-ran and the meeting finished at the planned time of 9pm.

“Plans for the modular homes at Waterloo Estate was the last item and, as there wasn’t enough time to discuss it, we’ve agreed to reconvene the meeting so that any outstanding questions or queries can be addressed.”