After days of rumour and leaked memos, a joint paper from the Government and London Mayor has today confirmed that the fast-track for developers will fall from 35% to 20%, and the cash required from developers to improve local areas will be halved.
Under the new plan, just 1 in 8 homes need to be social housing for schemes to be fast-tracked, with the rest able to be so-called “affordable” – which often are still far too expensive for local people to rent or buy.
Among other reforms, the plan also sees a power grab from the Mayor of London who will now be able to overturn local housing decisions of schemes over 50 homes.
This comes as Labour’s housing crisis reached new highs, with affordable housing delivery falling off a cliff in recent times. In Southwark, the council failed to start building any council homes in the last year, and has overseen affordable housing ratios fall as low as 10% in large housing schemes across the borough.
The new plans will also see Community Infrastructure Levy – the cash that developers must hand over to councils to fund projects like parks, sustainable transport, and safety measures – halved. Southwark had recently started allocating £20 million of this funding following a Liberal Democrat campaign to release the money for the benefit of the community.
Reports also suggest that this plan was drawn up behind closed doors between the Government and the big developers – with no input from local government voices.
Commenting, Southwark Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain said:
“Labour are backing a deal that lets developers get away with just 20% affordable housing while slashing the infrastructure money councils rely on. Southwark residents need real affordable homes and investment in schools, health and transport – not more luxury flats they can’t afford and less funding.
We’ve already seen how weak this Labour council has been towards developers, letting them get away with offensively low affordable provision – and now we’re seeing that baked into policy from the very top of the Labour Party in Government.
Whilst Labour cozy up to developers, Liberal Democrats will keep demanding that local residents who are being priced out of Southwark are put first.”
