A leading housebuilder has condemned as “political gerrymandering” London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s proposals that half of all new homes in the city should be affordable housing.
Robert Weston, Weston Homes’ MD, described the move as “back-door taxation” and claimed that the provision of affordable housing represents a financial drain on residential developers’ resources. He said: “We’ve got a planning application in at the moment for a scheme of 350 residential units in Tower Hamlets. The council wants 25% of these to be affordable and sell at no more than £40,000 each. But we could sell these privately for £250,000 each – the affordable housing element is costing us a total of £18.5m in lost revenue.”
Last week, the House Builders Federation (HBF) said Livingstone’s plans would be “counterproductive, with developers pulling out of sites, particularly in less desirable areas with lower land values.” Weston confirmed that his company is one of the first such casualties. “We’re going to pull out of certain areas because of the amount we have to shell out in affordable housing. Barnet council wants 50% of all new properties to be affordable and gifted to them – they want them for nothing!”
Responding to further speculation in today’s papers about Gordon Brown’s plans to cut stamp duty on new inner city homes, Weston said: “On one side of the coin there’s a big fanfare about the government cutting stamp duty costs on inner city housing and pandering to the public. But there’ll be huge taxation through the back door. The industry doesn’t know where it stands at the moment – we need clearer guidelines from the government.”
EGi News 16/10/00
