City's affordability targets sky-rocket
Some London boroughs may have to more than double affordable housing delivery rates to meet new city-wide targets, Planning has learnt.
Mayor Boris Johnson last week wrote to all boroughs with indicative, negotiable three-year affordable housing targets without making them public. But Planning can reveal the targets, having seen Greater London Authority (GLA) documents.
Barnet is being asked to deliver 321 per cent more homes than it has over the past three years, Newham 197 per cent, Barking and Dagenham 130 per cent and Greenwich 117 per cent. Newham has the highest overall target at 5,754 homes, followed by Tower Hamlets at 5,164. Boroughs have until 12 November to respond.
Johnson's mayoral manifesto pledged 50,000 affordable homes by 2011. His plan uses a baseline set by dividing this total according to each borough's housing share in the London Plan.
This is compared with local area agreement (LAA) targets where in place and three-year delivery figures. If either is within 20 per cent of the baseline then the baseline is the indicative target. If the LAA or three-year figure is higher, it is the target.
Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames planning director Roy Thompson said its target is 50 per cent more than in the LAA. "We are not happy. But the proof of the pudding will be if there are meaningful talks," he said.
Another borough's head of planning argued that its target is unrealistic, meaning that all new homes it plans would need to be affordable.
But the mayor's housing director Richard Blakeway said: "In a challenging market, former mayor Ken Livingstone's 50 per cent target will deter development." Atisreal affordable housing director Anthony Lee said: "I think that it is a step back. There is no incentive to deliver beyond the target."
The GLA also announced this week that it is working on an economic recovery action plan to help bring forward major infrastructure investment projects.