The Government’s new formula for mandatory housing targets, which increases housebuilding targets nationally, is reducing the annual target in Southwark by
33%, analysis by the Southwark Liberal Democrats can reveal.
The move comes as Southwark has repeatedly failed to meet its previous advisory targets, which meant that its planning policy was forced to shift to “presumption
in favour of development”. However, the new, lower, target is still higher than the average number of additional homes delivered in recent years.
National targets were in both the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos at the General Election, with the Liberal Democrats pushing for a higher target of
380,000 homes a year, of which 150,000 would be social housing.
But the new formula removes the “urban uplift”, which means that the targets in mostly Labour councils fall, shifting housebuilding to rural, traditionally more Conservative
areas where demand is less, and housing shortages less acute.
The Southwark Liberal Democrats have branded it as politically motivated, and will harm any chance of places like Southwark ending the housing crisis.
Commenting, Southwark Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Cllr Emily Tester said:
“Southwark Labour has consistently failed to build enough homes, and there are still nowhere near enough genuinely affordable homes in our borough. They’ve had to abandon
building their own council homes, and now the Labour government is shifting the goalposts to make it easier for their own councils to hit targets. This is a supply issue, so we need more homes built in the most expensive areas, but the government have used
a politically motivated formula change to approach it the totally wrong way around.
The reforms now mean that if Southwark fails again to build enough homes under the current system that allows for resident input, Angela Rayner will start rubber stamping
developments in Southwark from Whitehall. The choice now is clear: build more homes or face a disaster for community-led development.”
