Capital Letters by JBP provides an insight into the world of London politics and development.
London authorities miss target for affordable housing
An analysis of statistics by the Financial Times has discovered that London councils are missing their own targets for new affordable housing. A mere 20 per cent of the 23,000 homes being built on the 61 sites started since March 2014 are affordable; well below the average target of 35-50% set by the local authorities in London.
Many developers claim that the community infrastructure levy, a flat-rate tax that the local authority charges on new developments in their area, is to blame for the shortfall. With the additional charge, there is less money in the pot for affordable homes.
However London’s deputy mayor Sir Edward Lister has disputed that the levy is responsible for the deficit. He has argued that getting developers to contribute to infrastructure projects in this way “[sparks] massive regeneration and [stimulates] large-scale investment in commercial activities, retail and housing”.
Those in favour of prioritising infrastructure over affordable housing will be looking to Battersea Power station as an example of how this choice can be beneficial for housebuilding. The development company for the power station insist that their contribution of more than £200m to the Northern Line extension has “triggered a wave of new housebuilding” in the area.
Changes in the London Mayor's planning powers
The Treasury recently published proposed changes which would allow the Mayor greater power to intervene in planning applications for large housing projects.
Existing planning regulations state that London boroughs must refer applications for more than 150 homes to the Mayor who then decides whether to intervene in the decision or return it to the borough to decide itself. The justification for this is that applications for large numbers of homes may be of significance to the development of the borough, although the power to intervene has not been used extensively by the current Mayor, Boris Johnson.
It was also announced that the GLA will be considering whether to change planning law to automatically refer any planning application of more than 50 homes to the GLA if a determination on the application hadn’t been reached within 16 weeks. Roger Hepher, senior director at Savills property retailers, told PlanningResource that “a lot of proposals get bogged down because authorities don't have the resources to process them or they get caught up in local politics”, and that the 16 week target “should be perfectly possible”.
Last week, the Mayor, along with Chancellor George Osborne, announced a package of proposals for London planning, Among the long list of proposals were plans to remove the need for the Mayor and London boroughs to involve the Communities Secretary when setting policy on protecting London’s sightlines and wharves. Additionally, a proposal for a London Land Commission was announced, whose task would be to identify and develop currently unneeded brownfield land by 2025.
Alterations to the London Plan are adopted
The latest version of the London Plan was formally adopted by the GLA on 10 March. The first version of the plan was published in 2004, and has been several reviews since. The most recent alterations follow a report by inspector Tony Thickett in 2014.
The most recent version of the plan sets out five key changes, based around the need for the capital to manage its growing population until 2036.
The changes include an increase of London’s annual housing target by 10,000 to 42,000 homes and a London-wide target to deliver 3,900 specialist units for older people a year until 2025.
Topically, the revised document includes a plan to help London protect its valued pubs from being lost to developments. This comes after the communities minister, Kris Hopkins announced that the government will bring forward secondary legislation to change the planning processes to make it more difficult for developers to change the usage of pubs. According to the GLA, “900 pubs closed in the capital from 2003 – 2012.”
JBP's Mayoral Watch
- Sol Campbell has announced that he may be interested in running as a Conservative candidate for London Mayor.
- A YouGov poll has shown Tessa Jowell to be slightly ahead in the polls, ahead of Sadiq Khan in second and Diane Abbott in third.
- David Lammy has authored a report with Policy Exchange that says that large swathes of low value property offending in England and Wales is going unreported. The hopeful mayoral candidate was also left embarrassed when Margaret Hodge denied that she had ever endorsed his bid to become London mayor, after he had claimed to have her backing the day before.
Read these articles and more on the JBP website.