Landlord’s plan would lay out selection criteria for some tenants
Olympic village looks to favour those in work
Olympic developer Triathlon Homes is in talks to introduce a lettings plan that could select some tenants for the athletes’ village on the basis of whether they have a job.
Triathlon is looking to draw up a rental plan for the 679 social homes in Stratford, east London, which will allow it to limit the proportion of tenants it takes from the top of the housing lists on a needs basis.
It hopes that by selecting some tenants based on criteria such as employment status and age, it will be able to inject a sense of aspiration into a more mixed community. Other landlords run similar lettings lists but this is the first time details have emerged about Triathlon’s plans.
The joint venture company, which was set up by developer First Base, and housing associations Southern Housing and East Thames, is creating a plan with the Homes and Communities Agency, which provided £120 million of grant funding to the scheme, Newham Council and the Olympic Park Legacy Company.
Triathlon is also working with Westfield, which is developing Europe’s largest shopping centre near the village on the Olympic park site, in order to create employment opportunities for residents.
Geoff Pearce, executive director at Triathlon and group director of development and asset management at East Thames, said: ‘We have been thinking about how we can make the lettings process more sustainable so we can avoid some of the problems you get by taking people from the top of the housing lists. We are looking at employment and how we could help people and ensure people are on the pathway to employment, reducing dependency on benefit.’
Mr Pearce emphasised that there were still legal hurdles to overcome and the details are yet to be resolved.
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 23/07/2010 9:52 am
Were these homes ever going to be for the local people!! I think not. Do politicians ever tell the truth? It will soon become another Canary Wharf. I doubt that many of the local residents in some of the most deprived boroughs in Europe will be shopping in the near by Westfield at outlets such as Gucci and Prada.
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| 24/07/2010 8:00 am
So by definition being "local" in Newham means being unemployed and on lifetime benefits at the expense of the taxpayer does it? Don't you think that's just a wee bit patronising? Should the new development be stuffed full of benefit case, allocated on the basis of the "need" they have created for themselves or should working people being given an opportunity to live there so they don't have to get ripped off in PSL sector for a change? Sounds like a no-brainer doesn't it? Except to NuLab era lefties of course. To 1945 socialists however, when all council housing allocation was done on the basis of merit and being employed was number one and being married if children were present was number two, it sounds completely reasonable...how the Left have lost it these days.
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