Green light for 17 more council homes in Bow

Proposals to build 17 new council homes on the site of a former children’s home have been given the go ahead. Permission for the four townhouses and 13 flats in Norman Grove, Bow, was granted at a meeting of the council’s development committee on Thursday.

The properties will have a mixture of one to four bedrooms. They will all be rented at genuinely affordable rates to residents of Tower Hamlets who are on the council’s housing register.

John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “The green light for these properties will take us one step closer to delivering 2,000 new council homes by 2022. I’m particularly pleased this includes family sized homes with two, three and four bedrooms.

“When we are marking 100 years of council housing, I’m proud that Tower Hamlets is leading from the front in showing that we can still deliver good quality, well thought out social housing that makes a real difference to our residents.”

The former children’s home that stands on the site where these new homes will be built closed its doors last year. The building was old and no longer suitable for accommodating young people.

Councillor Rachel Blake, Deputy Mayor for Air Quality, Planning and Tackling Poverty said: “Tower Hamlets is already a densely built borough and available land is hard to come by. By identifying council-owned sites that aren’t being used for the purpose they once were, we’re able to keep moving towards the 2,000 homes target we have set ourselves.

“I’m really pleased that this development has been given permission. For a family that is living in an unsuitable or overcrowded home, the opportunity to move into a one of these properties will be life changing.”

Seven of the 17 properties will have one bedroom, five will have two bedrooms, three will have three bedrooms and two will have four bedrooms. Two will be wheelchair accessible.