Target practice

Richard Blakeway

housing advisor to London Mayor Boris Johnson

‘It’s an ascent that looks unstoppable. With the return of council house building and talk of greater incentives for local authorities to deliver new housing, localism, it seems, will dominate housing policy this year. But what does it mean?

‘With waiting lists that doubled in the capital over the previous decade, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been advocating a bottom-up approach to affordable housing delivery aimed at delivering more affordable homes, more closely aligned to local housing need. It is working.

‘London is now on course to deliver the greatest number of affordable homes in a single mayoral term - 50,000 by the Olympic Games in 2012, despite the economic conditions. So far 20,000 have been completed, including the largest proportion - 37 per cent - of desperately needed family-sized homes this decade. The success has come from the mayor’s own leadership of the London-arm of the Homes and Communities Agency, and by advocating the case for the capital in all of its decisions.

‘Yet the challenge is not so much completing 50,000 affordable homes, but giving developers the confidence to commit to new starts onsite to deliver even more affordable homes - and indeed, all types of housing. This means exploring innovative models to fund infrastructure and, in the absence of sufficient bank lending to developers, finding other ways to make schemes viable - whether attracting institutional investment or, where possible, releasing public land for development without an upfront receipt.

‘Much of this approach will mean policies configured uniquely for London, and together with the Homes and Communities Agency, we are close to securing institutional investment within London to pilot the private rented sector initiative, as well as encouraging progress on bringing public land holdings forward.

‘Future delivery in the capital should also see a greater, more defined role for local authorities to play in housing investment. The HCA’s single conversation is a useful starting point, but in London we are keen for local authorities to go further to ensure that investment meets housing need at a very local level.

‘Empowering local authorities will also help us to unlock councils’ existing powers and assets - whether planning, public land or, potentially, borrowing abilities. This is something that will be absolutely critical if public finances tighten. In London, many ambitious councils are stifled by the straightjacket of the current, national centralised system, which is why we are conducting a pilot with three boroughs to go beyond the single conversation.

‘The pilot has the potential to offer boroughs willing to commit to delivering more affordable homes an indicative budget from the HCA for their area, which is monitored by the mayor through the London Board of the Homes and Communities Agency and this, within the terms of the statutory housing strategy, should lead to greater flexibility and decision making resting with the mayor.

‘Finally, with some 48,000 households in temporary accommodation, London should be able to make a strong case for wider value to the public purse of delivering affordable homes in the capital.

‘It is vital that as well as the numbers of homes delivered, we focus on improving the quality of homes, old and new, and securing better value for money from grant for new homes, whether by delivering larger homes or targeting intermediate products at those households with the most limited housing options.’

Nicky Gavron

housing spokesperson for the London Assembly Labour group

‘Right from the start there has been more than a whiff of smoke and mirrors about Boris Johnson’s target for 50,000 affordable homes. He promised to build 50,000 new homes but has since admitted they won’t all be new. He promised to build them by 2011 but then extended the deadline to 2012. And he has just celebrated ‘delivering’ 20,000 affordable homes - responsibility for which can be traced back to before he was elected.

‘Mr Johnson’s target, if he makes it, will have to average 12,500 new homes per year. This is compared with around 13,500 at the end of [previous mayor] Ken Livingstone’s term, delivered through planning, with a lot less money and no direct housing powers.

‘What many do not realise is that City Hall’s 50,000 figure is gross not net. It does not subtract affordable homes moving from the public to the private sector, it includes the open market homebuy scheme, which is a financial product and not additional homes, and it counts the replacement of affordable homes that are demolished as additional units.

‘And there’s another twist. Some of the housing renewal, even at higher densities, may result in a decrease in social rented housing in favour of intermediate housing and a massive increase in market housing. Looking at the approach of some London boroughs to applications and housing renewal, this is a pattern emerging across the capital, including in areas where the proportion of social rented housing is historically low.

‘Mr Johnson’s policies in the draft replacement London Plan are reinforcing this trend. The significance of these policies - which still have to go through an examination in public - should not be underestimated given their statutory nature.

‘Mixed and balanced communities are rightly one of the shibboleths of the London Plan. But under Mr Johnson’s this means ‘a mix of tenure should be sought, particularly in neighbourhoods where social renting predominates’. Where, one might ask, are displaced residents to go? Crucially, there is no reciprocal policy for social rented housing to be introduced into areas where private housing predominates.

‘Additionally, to further mixed communities, Mr Johnson’s plan is promoting ‘intermediate’ at the expense of social rented housing. He is not only doing this by shifting the split from 70/30 to 60/40 (proportions of social rented to intermediate housing), he is also raising the threshold for eligibility for intermediate housing. ‘Subsidy will now be given to households on incomes of more than £70,000 - twice the average household income in London. This means fewer subsidies available for households on under £30,000 a year (two-thirds of households) which are dependent on an increase in the supply of social rented housing.

‘Under the guise of “mixed communities”, London boroughs will have a green light to change the social make-up of their estates, if desired.

‘The proposed policies will increase social polarisation not reduce it. The mayor’s abandonment of the 50 per cent affordable housing target means that boroughs with little affordable housing, which don’t want to provide any more, will be let off the hook. This is at a time when the need for decent affordable homes is desperate, with a third of a million Londoners on waiting lists, and three-quarters of a million living in overcrowded conditions.

‘The whole point of a regional housing strategy is to use capacity - wherever it is in London - to meet the city’s overall needs. The lack of strategic leadership and the new laissez-faire approach masquerading as localism will wreck this crucial principle.’

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