Housing Review from Liam Gillespie, Head of Housing Management

Housing Review

Liam Gillespie, Head of Housing Management

Welcome to the Summer 2023 edition of @home, the twice-yearly magazine for City of London Housing Service residents.

In this edition, you can read about our approach to building much-needed new homes, with a closer look at the Isleden House project in Islington. This has brought old and new together, providing three new family homes on an estate with an interesting history – including a royal connection.

Tenancy fraud is serious problem for all housing providers. We work hard to ensure that homes are only allocated to people who need them, however some people abuse the system for their own gain. In this issue, you can read about the work done to tackle social housing fraud last year. Colleagues successfully took back nine properties, which have now been allocated to people who really need them. If you are concerned about tenancy fraud, you can report it confidentially. Please see the details on pages 4 &5 of this issue.

Fire safety in the home is something we are all concerned about. You may already have heard about serious fires caused by lithium batteries, including those involving e-scooters, electric bikes and mobile phones. The London Fire Brigade was called to well over 100 fires involving e-scooters and bikes in 2022, many of which were in people’s homes. Fires caused by faulty or damaged lithium batteries can happen very suddenly and have devastating consequences.

We have included some safety precautions you can take, and warning signs to look out for, if you have one of these devices. Please follow this guidance to keep yourself and your household members as safe as possible.

We hope you enjoy this edition of the magazine. If you have any comments on it, or any ideas on what you would like to see in future editions, please email home@cityoflondon.gov.uk.