The Tooting building is expected to save Wandsworth Council up to £6m in temporary accommodation costs
A new South London temporary housing scheme has been hailed a “landmark” for helping homeless families.
Wandsworth Council has an agreement with owner London Hotel Group (LHG) to use the 186-room Constitutional House, in Tooting, as temporary accommodation for six years, in a move expected to save the council up to £6million overall.
The scheme will keep more homeless families in Wandsworth by tackling the shortage of such accommodation, aiming to improve outcomes for children, as nearly half of the temporary units used by the council are outside the borough.
Each unit in the building, near Tooting Broadway Underground station, has a kitchenette and bathroom.
The block also has storage units for each family, a learning centre for children with 25 computers, a faith room, communal kitchen, an office for council staff, outdoor play area and garden, laundry facilities and free Wi-Fi. It has repair services, including 24-hour pest control.
Dave Worth, Wandsworth’s Director of Housing Services, said the building was a “landmark development for temporary accommodation in the capital”.
Mr Worth said: “In the 30 years I have been supporting homeless families in London, I have never seen the level of detail and design that has gone into this project.
“This means we can keep families in our borough, which ensures they can remain connected to their communities, whilst also saving £6m of taxpayers’ money over the next six years through this agreement. It demonstrates what is possible with planning and a true partnership.”
Tooting MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan added: “The development breaks new ground for what is possible in London for temporary accommodation, and I would encourage leaders of all London councils to visit and reconsider what they could achieve in their area.”
The council’s Cabinet approved the plans in July last year and the building opened in February.
A report by council officers last July said the move would reduce the authority’s reliance on nightly paid arrangements for placing homeless people in temporary accommodation, often in hotels or B&Bs, which were more expensive and unpredictable.
The council predicted it could save up to £1million a year by moving families currently in its most expensive placements, often outside of the borough, to the block.
The report said the council had placed increasing numbers of homeless people in nightly paid accommodation since 2023. There were 1,737 families in this type of accommodation in May last year, compared to 1,605 families in May 2024 and 1,439 families in May 2023. At the same time, the report added, nightly paid unit rates had increased by 29 per cent since April 2023.
Meher Nawab, LHG’s Chief Executive, said the firm aimed to have projects like Constitutional House in every London borough in five years’ time.
He added: “We are really proud of Constitutional House. We wanted to create a new gold standard for temporary accommodation in London and we think we have achieved that.”
The council places people in the block and collects their rent, which will be capped at 90 per cent of the 2011 Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate for the location.
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