Local authorities have to meet the government’s decent homes targets for 2010 and beyond, but how do you find out which dwellings in your borough need upgrading without dispatching an expensive army of clipboard-toting researchers?

To get around this problem, BRE has been appointed to help six London boroughs (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington and Westminster) to locate poor housing in the private sector. The private sector in the six boroughs is estimated to account for about 74% of all housing, 30% of which is either poor or in danger of deterioration.

The aim is to identify the factors that contribute to what is termed ‘non’ decent homes, by June this year, in preparation for North London’s first ever private sector housing strategy.

This is the first group of boroughs in the country to tackle this issue in order to meet the government’s decent homes targets for 2010 and beyond.

BRE has been appointed to carry out the work by using mapping systems based on the 2001 Census and data collected from the English National Housing Condition Survey .

mapping will be carried out over a huge area, but will still be detailed enough to locate individual roads

Robert Flynn, BRE

Unfit housing, poor repair, excessive cold, fuel poverty and vulnerable people are some of the key factors influencing the local property conditions. This means that people are living in poor housing that is deteriorating - their health suffers and the quality of life in an area is reduced.

Robert Flynn, a principal consultant at BRE, explained how the process works: “Our mapping will be carried out over a geographical area of London equivalent to the size of Kent, but it will be detailed enough to locate individual neighbourhoods and roads.”

Source

Construction Manager