The Leader of Enfield Council set out her vision of how to improve the quality of housing in the borough to a meeting of Edmonton Green residents on Saturday.
The meeting, at Edmonton Green Towers Community Centre, on February 16, was called by the Leader to address concerns from residents about the quality of repairs and maintenance on the towers above Edmonton Green shopping centre which are owned and managed by London and Quadrant (L&Q) and Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTV) Housing Associations.
Discussions were also held about how to plan for future growth in Enfield and how residents wanted to see Edmonton Green’s and other town centres develop and evolve in the future. Officers from L&Q and MTV Housing Associations were on hand to answer specific queries from residents.
Cllr Nesil Caliskan, told attendees that the Council was developing a Local Plan to meet future housing needs in the borough and was committed to working with developers and other housing providers in Enfield to ensure there were enough homes for its growing population. But she also pledged action on bringing existing, sub-standard properties up to standard.
She said it was important that everyone in the borough lived in a warm, dry property which met their needs and that repairs were carried out promptly, regardless of whether they were a Council, private or housing association tenant.
Cllr Caliskan told the meeting: “Where there are problems with the condition of a property, I want the Council to take the appropriate action to tackle those problems, or to make sure the landlord does as quickly as possible and I want the Council to work more closely with our housing associations to set serviced standards and collaborate – if these organisations want to build new homes in our borough, we want to be assured that they are of the highest quality.”
She added: “We are committed to improving the quality of life for our resident, central to those plans is raising the standard of our housing. We know we cannot do that alone and so we will be working tirelessly with our partners to identify and tackle the problems residents identify.”
Discussions also took place about how town centres should be improved, with Cllr Caliskan outlining work that was being done to create a new Town Centre Development Team and future work to develop Town Centre Action Plans to make the borough’s key shopping areas more attractive places to visit.
The local plan consultation closes on 28 February and can be accessed here.