Harrow’s Housing Crisis – What went wrong at the old civic centre?

Drive past the old Civic Centre in central Harrow and there’s still no sign of any building work.

Yet plans for hundreds of new affordable home in our local community, alongside a state-of-the-art primary school, had been agreed, finalised and were ready to go by May 2022.

The first homes were due to be completed by the end of December this year.

Instead, the old Civic Centre hasn’t even been demolished. There’s no clear date for work to start, let alone for families to move into their new homes.

As a result, too many of Harrow’s young families will continue to miss out on the chance to find an affordable home in their local community.

In June 2022, Conservative councillors in Harrow decided to ‘review’ the plans.

So what happened?

Labour Cllr Graham Henson explains what went wrong