Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is turning his attention to other public sector bodies across London to bring forward land for affordable housing, particularly the Metropolitan Police.
Members of the Met, Transport for London and the Greater London Assembly were questioned on the new public land development strategy by the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee on 7 March.
According to James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and development, the mayor’s priority is to take a hands-on approach to delivery and increase affordable housing.
“The priority for GLA group land is to bring forward land at pace, and to have a real focus on delivering housing, as well as just receipts,” he said.
However, there have been concerns that Khan’s commitment to a 50% affordable housing contribution on land sold by public sector bodies has slowed land disposals.
Balance of power
Rebecca Lawrence, chief executive of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), reiterated the Met’s need to balance the value of its estate with policing London efficiently.
She said: “We have committed to finding ways to achieve that 50% [affordable housing contribution] across our portfolio… as well as, and complementary to, the estate strategy that is most in line with the operational needs of the Met now.”
Since 2013 the Met has vacated 149 buildings, with 73 sold freehold. Of those, 95% have received planning permission.
Murray pointed out that, since Khan became mayor, there has been a focus on a closer relationship between the development strategies of the Met and TfL, adding that the knowledge and practices of the GLA are now more integrated with the two bodies.
However, when Lawrence was pressed for a concrete example of where the GLA and the Met have worked together on a single site to put it up for sale, she was unable to name one, citing reasons of confidentiality.
She said that MOPAC was looking at how the police’s estate can be used to help the police reduce costs, and constructive conversations are ongoing about how to “push out the envelope” on affordable housing.
TfL fares well
TfL bore the initial brunt of the mayor’s affordable housing requirements.
After working up a developer framework panel and preparing a number of schemes for development prior to Khan’s election, it was then told it would need to work towards a 50% affordable housing contribution on its sites.
Murray said TfL is hitting those targets.
“With the TfL sites which have come forward, they are all on track to deliver 50% affordable housing, and to exceed the estimated income in the business plan,” he said.
However, Matthew Punshon, interim head of asset leverage at the Met, stressed how different TfL and the Met are in their strategies and disposal of assets.
He said 90% of the Met’s estate is less than 50 units in size, with the average site accommodating 23 homes
And, unlike TfL, the Met is not allowed to act as a developer, and thus has to sell its sites outright – making development with a 50% affordable housing commitment more difficult.
Is Whitehall next?
The mayor’s office is also looking at new public sector opportunities in London.
Simon Powell, assistant director of strategic projects and property at the GLA, said the mayor has been holding bilateral meetings with public sector landholders across the capital, as well as those directly under the GLA’s control, to look at surplus land.
Conversations have been had with the Department of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence and the London Estates Board, with the GLA “meaningfully engaged in looking at a land protocol across the Whitehall departments”.
