HOW do you provide a home for people in Ealing when the property is in Southwark? Simple, you move it across London.

Housing association Hyde worked with Ealing Council to relocate and refurbish Corbet House, a set of 18 modular apartments.

Renamed Chris Payne House, the homes are now in Hanwell and will now provide temporary accommodation for the homeless.

Named in memory of a  former Ealing councillor who died in 2014, Chris Payne House has replaced derelict garages behind existing council properties.

The council has modified the layout to create two four-bedroom family apartments, as well as fourteen one- or two-beds, ie Ealing has turned 18 flats into 16 homes. Each has a new oven, cooker and white goods.

The new flats will be rented to homeless Ealing people while they look for a permanent home. The first tenants were expected at the end of June.

Ealing Council bought the demountable flats – purpose-built as housing – from Hyde and spent a further £2.47m on moving, reassembling and renovating them. A fleet of huge lorries re-loacted them from Southwark.

The flats should save the council around £125,000 a year on expensive bed and breakfast for the 16 households.