27 Apr Revealed: Flawed regeneration planning process in Southwark, brings into question whether affordable housing in the area is truly affordable.
Regeneration is Southwark is a hot button issue, but local residents will point to housing be a key concern within the issue.
Back in 2011, 15.7% of households in Southwark were overcrowded, this put against the London average of 11.6% begins to solicit more questions than answers.
Regeneration planning strategy hasn’t helped to stem the issue as building affordable housing is all well and good in practice but is it really affordable to local residents in its current definition.
Speaking with councillor Barrie Hargrove he said to me that “developments of 10 or more houses must have 35% affordable housing split between social rented and intermediate housing” but that developers can “appeal against the decision of the planning committee.”
The current Elephant park development is a key focus as flawed planning process for regeneration housing on behalf of Southwark Council has exposed flaws in providing affordable homes for its local residents.
These flaws begin with Council planning policy dictating that housing developments of 10 or more units should have 35% affordable housing split 50-50 between social rented and intermediate housing. Elephant park from Lendlease has 25 % affordable housing, which has been justified due to it not being financially viable.
However, a quick look at Lendlease’s website shows the lowest home price being £773,000, in a borough in which people earn an average income of £29,192.
Does this really constitute as being so called “affordable housing” with such prices of housing the reduction in affordable housing seems to be aligned with profit rather than financial difficulty, despite this the council maintains that despite local resident fears that “no one will be left behind.”
Speaking with Kristian Scrase of Network Homes, affordable housing in London is still somewhat genuinely affordable, but said “ the problem is that shared ownership shouldn’t be relied on to solve the issue and should be balanced between it and social rented housing to open up more affordable housing to more people.” When talking about the case of the Heygate, he said to me that there had been “poor mismanagement by the council” which bordered on incompetency.
However, the council serves to only be part of the issue as housing association L&Q’s group director for development sales said in 2015 of Elephant park that “we look forward to developing a vibrant, mixed community where new homes for local people and hardworking local families.”
This statement only seems to exacerbate the problem of affordable housing and begs the question as to what truly makes a house fall under the bracket of affordable housing.
Lendlease themselves have claimed to say that as part of their plans, 3-bedroom apartments on the estate were to be prioritised as socially rented, the listings for 3-bedroom apartments seem to say otherwise starting at £1,515,000.
To add to this whilst talking to Emile Scott Burgoyne, a documentary maker who has made documentary looking at the effects of regeneration on affordable housing said that “unfortunately up to 80% of the Elephant park had been sold off to international landlords” and that more often than not went on to sell property at increased price.
He also went on to say that “we have to stop relying on private property developers for creating social housing” highlighting that a developer’s sole care is protecting profit and money making.
Southwark has the highest level of social housing in London (43.5 %of dwelling stock) and is seen to one of the more deprived areas of London.
Planning process has clearly failed local resident’s hope of participating in the regeneration housing on offer by seeking to create new housing to be open to a wide range of people, which at first glance sounds rather tantalising.
But only when looked at in further detail lies the truth that the bottom line remains that money talks and that due to the stark differences between average incomes and average house prices renders the term of affordable housing to have limited meaning, and how regeneration has caused more and more local residents to be priced out of a market that they simply cannot afford.
Southwark council’s New Southwark Plan claims that regeneration is for all and that housing is a key commitment in this planning document and claims to want “to invest in our communities and residents, and existing residents so that everyone can access the benefits of our regeneration programmes and the opportunities created by those programmes for new homes.”
This seems to be at odds as to what has come out of new regeneration housing being made in partnership between Southwark council and Lendlease as investment into new housing has occurred, but it seems that local residents have been forgotten, and that investment has brought back into focus whether affordable homes are actually truly affordable to the average resident.
The council itself in this document says that “all homes in Southwark should be affordable” but evidence suggests that new homes are not affordable, with the Elephant park site providing just 92 socially rented flats on its latest phase, compared to the 1,194 socially rented flats that it’s predecessor the Heygate estate had.
Flawed planning strategy also has financial viability assessments to blame for failing to provide adequate amounts of what the council consider to be branded “affordable homes.”
This is due to developers using them as reason to protect costs and undervalue sales as a reason for a smaller allowance of affordable housing, which is clear in the 25% affordable housing in Elephant park coming under the council’s policy requiring a 35% minimum affordable housing, therefore reducing the amount of social housing needed.
Referring back to the New Southwark plan for housing dated December 2019, Southwark council themselves admit that 31% of Southwark residents can only afford social rented housing up to approximately £20,000.
These findings look to further expose the problem that Southwark council in association with private developers is having is delivering affordable homes, by acknowledging the need for said housing, whilst homes in the area become more unaffordable.
Affordable housing continues to be a problem facing this deprived area of London with more and more people needing a place to live and planning strategy that is struggling to deliver this at a time where houses are desperately needed.
In the section 106 agreement that Lendlease has with Southwark council dated from March, it puts forward that Lendlease has an obligation to let affordable rent units to households eligible for social rented housing towards 1- and 2-bedroom homes at no more than 50% of market rent.
A quick look however shows that even with the stipulation of not exceeding 50% of market rent that rent can still be charged up to £1600 pcm based on this (of an average market rent in Southwark -£3,261) , even weekly comes to £400 a week far outstripping average council rents.
The prices being charged are out of touch with the borough needs, particularly at a time when in London a single person would need to save 46 years just to afford a mortgage on a property.
At such a time of financial uncertainty, the majority of prospective buyer’s credit levels will for go them being able to afford a house and face moving further away to buy anything remotely affordable.
Lendlease was contacted for comment but did not provide a response.
Southwark council is under constant pressure to build homes. However, under pressure planning strategy/procedure has suffered leading to affordable homes being inherently unaffordable and in doing so has only further exposed the difference between what is on a planning document to what is actually delivered in reality.
Regeneration is requirement in London to make sure that everything is modernized to enrich the lives of people in areas where it is occurring.
In the case of Southwark council, limited budgets and pressure have led it astray from the true purpose of creating affordable housing for existing residents.
It has instead let down local residents by promising much, whilst also suffering from a failure to make sure that all residents are catered for, and rather has made homes for international markets and the middle class.
The regeneration planning process has in effect had knock on effects for the community, with socially rented housing falling by 8,000 in the last decade and regeneration policy has struggled to replace these, with 11,000 currently being scheduled to be built by 2043.
The current coronavirus pandemic will only seek to increase uncertainty in the availability of truly affordable housing promised to residents in council documentation also set out by developers.
Southwark council set regeneration plans to revitalise the borough with new afforadable housing, but the example of Elephant park only needs to be looked to indicate that all is not what it seems, and that more must be done in future to finally crack the enigma that is affordable housing.
