While most people spent last
night glued to Man U-Chelsea (or The Apprentice), some of us were at Lewisham Town Hall for Full Council… One of the items up for discussion was the borough’s housing targets - in particular the split we aim for between affordable housing and what I refer to as ‘market rate’ (others might call it unaffordable)
There was pretty much unanimity between the parties* for a 50% target. However, my concerns are about how it’s proposed to deliver 50% - this is buried in the small print of Lewisham’s Local Area Agreement - the ‘contract’ between the partners in the borough and central government.
As recently as 30th April, the Mayor and his cabinet agreed a 35% target - based on delivering 975 homes a year in total, of which 341 would be affordable. This was changed within the last 22 day to a total of 859 homes per year, of which 429 would be affordable.
So the 50 % target has been acheived - in part- by reducing the total number of homes to be delivered each year. In effect, what’s proposed is increasing the number of affordable homes by 86 - to 44% of the 956 target - then lowering the overall target until that 44% becomes 50%.
Now, the housing market isn’t looking great, but I can’t believe that the demand for market rate homes has dropped by over 200 per year over the last month. As the Housing Minister told the House of Commons Select Committee - we need more homes of all tenures - social rent, shared ownership and market rate.
To his credit, the Mayor agreed to look again at the figures - and I hope he’ll revise them before the Local Area Agreement is signed off with government. A 50% target sounds good - but as with a lot of stuff, the devil’s in the detail.
*The Grove Park Tories aren’t in favour of any targets, but stressed this didn’t mean they were against affordable housing - something to do with Boris having decided for them - I actually think Boris decided it was up to them, but I’m not party to the inner workings of the Tory Party. Thankfully.
Cllr Mark Morris
I’m really pleased that 