All I want is a Room Somewhere…

Time and time again when people are asked what they would do if they had a big lottery win they say ‘pay off the mortgage’ or ‘buy a place to live’. Next they say they would make sure their kids and family had a home that is paid for, or at least a big chunk of the mortgage paid off. Many people say they would carry on working but do less hours and lots of people say they would give money to good causes. In other words, most of us are not greedy fools desperate to live a celebrity lifestyle.  We want security in the basics of life so we can get on with other things. And you can’t get much more basic than a secure home for yourself and your family. There is a national housing crisis and as many Londoners know, there’s a huge housing crisis in the capital. There are of course plenty of houses and flats in London. In 2017 it was calculated that 20,000 houses and flats stood empty for 6 months or more. But even if these empty flats and houses were rented out, most would be unaffordable to people on average incomes.  The Pomeroy Street Development:  This is a good news story in the New Cross area, as Peabody, one of London’s oldest and largest housing associations, is building 65 new homes on Pomeroy Street, due to be finished in the summer of 2020. The development, as the trend nowadays, is a mix of ‘affordable rent’, part-buy/part-rent and some private sales as well as a commercial property. Add to this the development soon to start on Besson Street and other developments in the New Cross Area and we are beginning to see a picture of a good mix of new properties coming available in the next 2-4 years. With the extension of the Bakerloo line adding to the already excellent transport links in the area, we have to make sure that New Cross remains a place for the widest and most diverse range of people to live, work and study.