Ashington House

Upcoming Consultation Events

21st and 23rd October 2021. More information can be found on the Key Dates section.

Previous Consultation Events

We met residents of Ashington House in September 2020 to understand the building and their homes. In effect we arranged another round of consultations in December 2020 with the wider community and residents of Ashington House, to focus on listening to them and finding out how they would like to see the local area transformed. We have uploaded the presentation shared at the consultation here.

Tell us what you like & what could be better?

Nobody knows the local area better than you. We want to hear about what you like and what could be better in the area surrounding your home.

Background - About This Project

The average cost of renting a flat in Tower Hamlets is now more than the average household income. There are already more than 19,000 households on the housing register in need of an affordable home and more than 2,000 households are living in temporary accommodation. Although more new homes were built in Tower Hamlets in 2018 than anywhere else in the UK, the average price is now 22 times the average salary, so our residents often can’t afford to buy them.

In response, the Council has committed to delivering 2,000 new Council homes. These genuinely affordable homes will include properties big enough for families. One in ten will be wheelchair accessible.

At just eight square miles, space to build in Tower Hamlets is in short supply. We’re making the most of land that we already own, including buildings no longer used as they once were.

But that isn’t enough. We also need to look closely at whether there is room for us to increase the number of homes on existing estates.

We can do this by finding ‘infill sites’ or gaps on estates where new buildings can go. We’re also looking carefully to see if we can redevelop existing estates to replace older buildings with ones that are modern, better designed and crucially, that provide more council homes for our residents.

The condition of Ashington House has deteriorated in recent years, with many of the homes unsuitable to let due to damp, mould and inadequate insulation. A survey was carried out early 2019, where most residents told us they were dissatisfied with the current condition of the building. Because of the poor state of Ashington House it is not suitable for effective refurbishment, so the Council is therefore looking at options to redevelop instead.

After a question on heritage protection on the building was raised, an assessment was carried out by Heritage England and after careful consideration the Secretary of State (SoS) for Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) decided the buildings did not warrant listing. A Certificate of Immunity from Listing was issued in Autumn 2019 by the SoS for a period of five years.