Two stories this week reveal how councils can get housing policy right—and terribly wrong.
In Islington, the council won a landmark case, blocking a planning bid because the developers refused to abide by the council’s policy of building at least 50 per cent affordable homes in developments—with “affordable” meaning the homes must cost, at most, 80 per cent of market value. The developers, First Base, were rejected twice by the local authority for ignoring this rule. Their final offer of a measly 10 per cent of the development being “affordable” was eventually blocked by the courts, who upheld Islington’s decision.
Meanwhile, across the river in Battersea, Wandsworth council voted through plans allowing the developers of the luxury Battersea Power Station revamp to cut the number of affordable homes by almost half.
It’s disheartening, but not unusual. Islington’s stubbornness in refusing to allow plans through is refreshing. Far more common is the Wandsworth scenario: developers are collared into including a meagre nod to affordable housing in their plans, then swiftly drop the proposal once building begins, claiming with wide-eyed surprise that the plans just weren’t viable.
Councils in London have been particularly poor on housing. Often, these are Labour councils, whose actions contrast to national policy which affirms commitment to housing. In another case, Haringey council voted through a controversial ‘development vehicle’ this month that essentially privatises £2bn of council housing, land and buildings. Haringey’s housing policy will now be written by developers LendLease. Many residents fear homelessness and the demolition of their flats as a result.
Elsewhere, Southwark council were rapped by Communities secretary Sajid Javid over their controversial Aylesbury Estate demolition and regeneration plans, with the local authority warned that they were not considering the human rights of the tenants they were seeking to displace, temporarily or otherwise. And neighbouring Lambeth have faced a seemingly endless slew of protests over plans to demolish homes in the Cressingham Gardens and Central Hill developments in the south of the Borough.
When challenged, councillors point to the savage cuts they’ve endured most of this decade, claiming that the need to increase value extracted from land, and partner with private contractors to build, is a result of austerity hitting their coffers.
This tends not to ring true: the legal battles the councils have fought will be costly, and in the case of Southwark, research found the local authority had drastically undervalued the land they sold and lost money in the process. Most residents feel that, in truth, the driving impetus is altering the demographics of the area to bring in wealthier constituents.
Yet if this process is familiar, the fact that Islington stood up to the developers and refused to be cowed shows it isn’t inevitable. If they have robust policies in place, and properly enforce them, local authorities can make housing a genuine priority.
While Haringey council is busy outsourcing their council stock, tenants in Leeds voted to bring theirs back in-house from three arms’-length management organisations (the same type of organisation that ran Grenfell Tower). Instead, the homes will be managed by the council.
And in Sheffield, councillors have committed to increasing their council housing stock by 1000 in the next five years, with half of those being new build, and half existing housing purchased for council tenants. On the outskirts of the city, the local authority has partnered with a construction firm to build new affordable homes for rent and sale, with renters given the same secure tenancies as those in purchased council flats.
There are other examples across the country. In Stevenage, the council have committed to spending £1bn on building 2000 new council homes and renovating existing stock. And in a radical scheme in Liverpool and Stoke-On-Trent, locals were given the opportunity to buy down-at-heel homes for £1, if they committed to renovating them: the scheme was wildly popular with young locals, and helped revive streets with a glut of empty, abandoned homes.
In Toxteth, south Liverpool, the Granby Four Streets regeneration project turned four derelict streets back into family homes with input from the local community, council and a housing association. Having subsequently garnered attention when it won the Turner Prize, the project was an encouraging example of housing policy and development happening with people, not to people.
Financially, times are tough for councils. But these examples, and the success of Islington council, show if you’re tougher with developers than tenants, councils can win—and, by extension, so can local people.
