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The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and the London region of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have agreed £54.4 million of funding, to upgrade and refurbish over 400 properties adjacent to the A406 in Enfield.
Many of the properties have, to everyone's consternation, languished in disrepair for decades.
The funding was reported to the HCA London Board, chaired by the Mayor, fulfilling an election pledge to work with Enfield Council and Transport for London to resolve the issue. The stalemate that arose over the years prevented regeneration of this important area of London. The properties were originally compulsorily purchased by the Department for Transport in the 1970s to allow a major expansion of the A406 in Enfield.
They were inherited by Transport for London (TfL) from the Highways Agency in 2000 but the original plans were abandoned for a much smaller road improvement scheme, approved in September 2008, and the properties can now be renovated.
In the next few weeks, and subject to agreement of terms and contracts, the properties will be transferred from TfL to Notting Hill Housing Trust. The Trust will invest a further £35.6m to refurbish the dwellings and build more affordable homes on the vacant sites, bringing the total investment in the area to £90m. Once refurbished and upgraded, they will all be affordable homes.
The Mayor said: "During the election campaign I highlighted how unacceptable it was, that at a time when housing waiting lists were rising rapidly, the GLA group was sitting on large numbers of unoccupied and dilapidating properties.
"I promised to bring them back into use and with the hard work and commitment of Enfield councillors, TfL and the HCA, this sorry saga, and longstanding blot on London's landscape, created by the dithering of successive governments, will be removed. "Hundreds of Londoners and their families will now benefit with new affordable homes and this is a major step forward in the ongoing drive to reduce the scandalous number of empty homes in the capital."
(CD/KMcA)
