Cabinet approves home exchange to help resident homeowners stay on their regenerated estates

Last night, Newham Council’s Cabinet approved a wide-ranging policy that will provide residents owning property on regeneration sites in Canning Town, Custom House, and Carpenters Estate with a range of options to continue living on those estates.

Rokhsana Fiaz, Mayor of Newham, said:

“This offer continues our commitment to put residents at the heart of regeneration by ensuring that people have the chance to keep living on the estates where they have built their lives.

Throughout every stage of planning, our close consultation with residents has made clear that residents would prefer to stay on their estates – I am pleased that we have been able to honour those preferences with today’s offer.

Since I came into office in 2018, I have been absolutely clear that we want to build wealth and wellbeing in our communities, not price people out of their neighbourhoods. Regeneration is for our residents.”

The policy, approved unanimously by Cabinet last night (5 October), sets out three options for qualifying resident homeowners to exchange their old home for a new property in the regenerated neighbourhoods:

• Outright purchase of a new home;
• Shared ownership with zero rent, and
• Shared ownership with rent.

Under a shared ownership model, the qualifying resident homeowner, would be able to exchange the value of their existing home for a proportion of ownership in a new home, accounting for the difference in value between older homes and new properties in regenerated areas.

Where homeowners are still unable to afford one of these options, the Council will work closely to reach a suitable agreement, including by paying for an independent financial adviser to assess the options.

More detail, including full eligibility criteria, will be published in due course.