Labour Party News

Camden ditches commitment to affordable new housing “on the sly”

Camden’s historic commitment to 50% affordable housing on new developments is being ditched on the sly, say Camden Labour Councillors.

New council development proposals are to introduce a new “sliding scale” of 10% to 50% to cover the amount of affordable housing required on developments of less than 50 homes - the vast majority of all developments in Camden.

The effect of this, warn Labour councillors, will be to reduce the amount of affordable homes required from developers and hamper attempts to reduce Camden’s massive housing waiting list.

In October Mayor Boris Johnson ditched Ken Livingstone’s commitment for 50% affordable housing.

The new Local Development Framework, currently being consulted on by Camden council, states under “Camden’s Preferred Development Policies” (Vol. 2, p.20):

“The Council is aware that the 50% affordable housing target cannot be delivered for schemes that are close to the threshold, and is unlikely to be deliverable for schemes which provide less than 3,500 sq m housing (approx 35 dwellings)…”

“The Council will take the following positive measures to bring forward schemes that reach or exceed the 10 dwelling threshold:

“The 50% target will operate on a sliding scale, subject to development viability, with a norm of 10% for 1,000 sq m (gross) of additional housing and 50% for 5,000 sq m (gross) of additional housing – considered to be sites with capacity of 10 dwellings and 50 dwellings respectively.”

Opposition Labour spokesperson Theo Blackwell said:

“The Council’s commitment to obtaining 50% affordable housing from new developments would be fatally undermined by this approach. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat administration is watering down our access to new housing by this measure, and trying to cover it up in the smallprint.”

“This will reduce the council’s bargaining position with developers to get benefits for local people, who even more than ever will plead poverty in order to get the best deal for themselves. Developers will rush to get fewer and fewer affordable homes, rather than more.”

“The vast majority of developments in Camden would be captured by this proposal. If you think about the area south of the Euston Road, where space is so limited, we are most unlikely to get any affordable housing at all under this proposal – whereas, as we speak, there is a small development in Whitfield Street which is yielding 50% affordable housing on a site of 22 dwellings.”

Labour Matters is supportive of Labour but not an official Labour Party publication.
© of all articles and any photos remain with the author.
The Labour Rose icon - © The Labour Party.
Labour Matters website © 2008.