The sprawling 53-acre Canada Water Masterplan was approved by the Mayor last week, giving British Land the go-ahead to press on with building 4,200 homes, just 9 per cent of which will be affordable, after the scheme stalled for more than a year.
It wasn’t a surprising decision; the writing had been on the wall for some time. Last year the Mayor and government housing secretary Steve Reed lowered affordable housing targets for developers in London from 35 to 20 per cent.
But still, many were shocked when British Land, who had previously warned that the proportion of affordable housing on the scheme they could afford to build could be as little as 12 per cent, slashed that figure even further all the way down to 3 per cent.
Not even a £50 million cash boost from the Mayor could lift the number of affordable homes any higher than 9 per cent across the whole development, the equivalent of 154 more affordable homes.
And it should be noted that the amount contributed by British Land hasn’t increased at all; of that 9 per cent, the developer will still be contributing just 3 per cent, the maximum amount they claim to be able to build in a viable scheme.
Underlining the meagreness of the affordable housing offer, it emerged during the hearing that the 3 per cent figure actually referred to 79 affordable homes which have already been built on Roberts Close. Had it not been for the Mayor’s grant, from taxpayers’ money, it would have meant that no more affordable housing at all would have been built across the site.
The saga has exposed rifts within the Labour Party: The application was approved by the Labour-run GLA; Labour-run Southwark Council subsequently described the decision as a “disappointment”.
Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, by contrast welcomed the approval, describing the addition of 154 new homes to the development as “great news for families waiting for homes.”
That tension between the Labour council, the government and the Mayor will likely come under more strain as more developers with planning permission to deliver schemes with 35 per cent affordable housing turn around and seek to get that commitment watered down.
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The government’s Planning Inspectorate is currently deciding whether to approve Berkeley Homes’ proposals to redevelop the Aylesham Centre in Peckham into 900 homes, just 12 per cent affordable (down from 35 per cent).
Just this week we’ve learnt that Berkeley also plans to amend the affordable housing included within the Borough Triangle scheme in Elephant and Castle from 35 per cent down to 10 per cent.
And yet the role of the council to hold developers accountable for affordable housing targets is more enfeebled than ever; the Mayor handed himself power last year to call in major schemes which boroughs are minded to reject.
The decision on the Canada Water Masterplan suggests that even those which don’t meet his newly watered-down 20 per cent requirement will still be waved through.
What does that mean for the more than 20,000 families in Southwark on the waiting list for a new home?
