The £10 million contract, awarded by Notting Hill Housing Trust, includes the internal and external refurbishment of houses and flats, complete with new kitchens and bathrooms, bringing them up to affordable living standards by spring 2012.
The houses have been empty since the 1970s, when they were bought by the Department of Transport for a long-since abandoned scheme to widen the A406 North Circular Road.
Problems with fly tipping, neglect, and overgrown vegetation have made some of the homes in the Bounds Green area uninhabitable.
The homes were inherited by Transport for London (TfL) in 2000. Many were left uninhabitable and no money was invested in their repair. In October 2010, the homes were purchased, with funding from the HCA, by Notting Hill Housing Trust (NHHT), which has contracted Durkan to refurbish and upgrade 280 homes to become affordable housing. Notting Hill Housing also purchased a number of vacant sites and commercial properties and is working with Enfield Council on regenerating the area.
Squatters had to be evicted form 50 of the properties before work could start.
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