Council leader Adam Hug

COUNCIL chiefs are preparing to go on an £85million spending spree in a boost for struggling tenants waiting for a decent home.

The move is part of the “largest single investment” in housing ever made in Westminster, the ruling Labour administration says.

The 270 homes earmarked for purchase will be used for residents in temporary accommodation. They will be a mix of two- and three-bedroom homes, but with some one-bed flats. There are around 2,750 households from the borough in temporary accommodation.

Council leader Adam Hug said: “We want to keep families and communities together in Westminster, rather than strung out away from the schools and people they have got to know. The council is also reviewing its entire housing programme to ensure we make best use of council land and are providing truly affordable homes.

“The cost-of-living crisis and rising rents is putting huge strain on our temporary housing stock.

“This significant investment won’t solve the housing crisis but we can, at least, help some of those people to live in a more settled home that better meets their needs in Westminster.”

The plan will almost certainly be approved at next week’s budget before a debate and final vote at full council.

Councillors will face questions about how savings in other departments are being used to fund the initiative. Cuts to energy costs and “getting better deals from suppliers” have brought about £26million in savings, Cllr Hug said.

The council estimates that people in 31,000 Westminster homes are struggling with the cost of food and heating bills.

There is a particular focus on families with children and pensioners, the disabled and residents in more deprived wards like Church Street, Queen’s Park, and Harrow Road.

In 2015 it was revealed the city council spent more than £90million buying back the same council flats it sold in the 1980s and 1990s under the controversial Right-to-Buy policy.

Westminster remains notorious for the huge election-rigging scandal when Conservative leader Dame Shirley Porter was found to have sold off council homes to likely Tory voters. The cost to the taxpayer at the time was roughly £27million.

The move had a devastating impact, causing a shortfall in affordable housing stock for generations of residents.

Under the Conservatives the council set up a charitable company, Westminster Community Homes, that bought back 295 ex-council homes, at an average cost of £307,593.

If approved the move would represent the first concrete evidence of a major shift in priorities by the council following the Labour victory at the elections last May.