Sent to: [email protected]
The Rt Hon Sarah Sackman House of Commons London, SW1A 0AA
Dear Sarah,
I am writing on behalf of the “Our North Finchley” campaign to express our very strong objections to the Government’s proposal to reduce the target for affordable housing in developments in London. The “Homes for London” policy is an admission of the failure of current affordable housing policy. It is also clumsy short-term political expediency which will have long-term effects on our community.
Developers are not building new market housing in London because there is little effective demand for it. The government’s target of 88,000 new homes/year will thus be missed by a mile. Understandably, the government is embarrassed. This is the sole reason for these “emergency” measures. It’s not about meeting the needs of Londoners for affordable housing.
While the government pursues its failed policies, many are growing more desperate for a good home. There are 3,250 children in Barnet who are homeless or living in temporary accommodation, 19% up on a year earlier.
The change may “unlock” a few large schemes in time for the May 2026 local elections. But beyond that it will fail to deliver enough affordable homes while causing chaos in our neighbourhoods. Reducing the quota from 35% to 20% will require 75% more of all units to be built to get the same number of affordable ones. This will not happen. Yet the pressure will be there for even more of the massive, dense, badly designed, and damaging schemes that your constituents strongly oppose, of which GNLP and the North Finchley Masterplan are signature examples.
As the affordable housing quota falls from 35% to 20%, housing policy becomes ever more absurd. Under current policy, GNLP’s total of 1,500 units should have delivered 600 affordable homes. Under the new policy it will be 375. Where will the missing 225 affordable units come from? Another giant development with 1,125 homes? There is no site for this and no market for the extra 900 small flats.
These unnecessary schemes are destroying our communities. Nothing now matters in urban planning except the number of housing units delivered. Regal’s GNLP scheme would deprive local youth of a crucial amenity, while the Masterplan would devastate our town centre. If all this matters little to the council under current policy, how much less will it mean when 75% more tower blocks are needed to meet affordable housing requirements?
The policy of providing affordable homes as a proportion of private housing developments has failed. If the government seriously wants to provide the 3,250 homeless children in Barnet with a proper home, then a simple policy is to hand: Barnet Council should build more council homes and manage them well.
At least 150 social homes could have been built on the council-owned Lodge Lane Car Park. Instead, it was approved for luxury flats (despite London Plan Policy H4). The same could be said of the council-owned land next to GNLP (old bowls club).
Beyond the homelessness emergency, there is a major affordability issue for people under 40 needing to rent or buy a home. This requires far more sophisticated policy than this impulsive government seems able to conceive.
The Government’s “Homes for London” proposals appear designed to line developers’ pockets with public money. They will receive grants for building affordable homes even when grants are not needed to make a development profitable. The proposal to reduce CIL by 50% or more, with no offset in funding for councils, is also outrageous. CIL is how the community deals with a large increase in residents. How can we cope with 4,300 new residents in GNLP if our council cannot afford to fix pavements and potholes, collect rubbish or care for the disadvantaged?
The proposed reduction in quality standards for homes is shocking. Increasing the number of single-aspect homes and of units around a core are severely regressive steps. We have identified such problems in our local schemes. Does the government really propose to deliver more homes by reducing their quality?
The proposals put even more powers in the hands of a mayor who is accountable to no one. He will have the final say on schemes as small as 50 homes, like Lodge Lane Car Park. You have seen yourself how very “local” this scheme is. Councillors know it intimately, but the Mayor does not have the faintest idea where it is and does not care. This is profoundly undemocratic.
Many will justifiably view this proposal as a ‘developers’ charter’, which gives them a green light to build tower blocks designed only to increase their profits and those of private landlords and overseas investors. This is the inevitable consequence of linking affordable housing provision to private developers’ bottom line.
A responsible and resolute government would have held its nerve and seen out a cyclical downturn in housing starts. It would have waited to see the effect of more public housing finance. It would have developed policy democratically within the new London Plan. Instead, this government is rushing out half-baked measures.
We were pleased that at our public meeting you said that you would work with our campaign and you acknowledged the need for more affordable housing. We hope that you share our concerns and will oppose the government’s proposals. Please encourage your fellow MPs from London to do likewise. We would be grateful to receive your views on this.
Yours sincerely, Michael Levitsky (For “Our North Finchley”)