The London borough building so many council homes they account for 1 in 3 currently under construction in England
One of England’s most crowded boroughs is building one in three of the country’s new council homes, new stats show. Work started on 726 council homes in Southwark last year, according to government figures despite the borough already having crammed in a lot of housing, and the council being the bigest local authority landlord in London. Across all of England, construction began on 2,234 new council houses in the same period. It means a third of all council homes started last year are in Southwark, which is the seventh most densely populated area in England. Southwark Council hopes the new properties will help house some of the 17,200 people currently waiting for a council house in the borough. Jordan McLaughlin, 24, moved into one of 10 newly built council homes on Welsford Street in Bermondsey last year. Mr McLaughlin, his mother and sister had previously been sharing a cramped two-bedroom council flat around the corner and needed somewhere bigger. READ MORE: South London coun...