Cornwall Road London Mayor's Social Housing Scheme. Work Stopped For A Year

This brutally ugly, but socially critical, housing development by the London mayor was in essence built by February 2024 when work on the site stopped. It has lain neglected for a whole year now. I wrote to my London Assembly member Joanne McCartney last November to ask her to find out why it had not been finished and tenanted. Yesterday I received a response from her support officer as follows;

"I hope you are well today. Joanne has now heard back from the relevant team at the GLA regarding the Cornwall Road site.

Please see below:

“Apologies again for the delay coming back to you on this while we made some enquiries.

The team have now spoken to Haringey and they’ve advised that the site is being re-tendered following the previous contractor unfortunately going into liquidation, which has inevitably put things on hold in the short term. However, they hope to conclude the tender process this spring and work will aim to recommence on site later in spring this year.

If your constituent wants any further information, Haringey have provided the following email address Jack.Goulde@haringey.gov.uk.”

From this I gather that it is Haringey who are responsible for the mess and that if work ever restarts fifteen wasted months will have elapsed. I marvel at the Assembly Member thinking that fifteen months is a short term delay during a housing crisis. I further marvel that an Assembly Member see her job as being a messenger service between the officers and the public. Perhaps naively I once thought we elected representatives to get necessary things done and when they weren't, to call it out. If they were now replaced by AI would we notice? This I think is a disgrace.