MIPIM 2018: Building homes in London’s outer boroughs, especially on small sites, were lauded today as a solution to the capital’s housing crisis.
James Murray, London’s deputy mayor for housing and residential development, speaking as part of a panel at MIPIM debating London’s housing policy, said that outer London boroughs needed to take on a much larger share of housing than they have been recently.
He said: “The London Plan has made no changes to accessing the green belt for development, but at the same time has increased the capital’s housing target to 65,000 homes a year. Therefore, we’ve opened up the debate to those outer London boroughs, and made it clear that they will need to build more houses.
“High density doesn’t mean towers. We often show schemes that have four or five storeys, and then tell the residents, oh and by the way, that’s high density. And they’re often surprised.”
Up to the authorities
Murray also said it was in local authorities’ hands to pave the way for the types of development they would be comfortable with, but that would still intensify land use, especially in locations within 800m of a rail or Underground station, or within a town centre boundary. Plans for these sites would receive a “presumption in favour of development” according to the new London Plan.
“We’re giving local authorities the power to come up with design guidelines so that they can steer the development in their area. Locals will then, we hope, be more welcoming when developers come forward with schemes.”
Jo Negrini, chief executive at Croydon Council, welcomed the ambitious plans by the GLA, and pointed to the many small sites that Croydon was bringing forward through its Brick by Brick development company.
“Londoners are very clued up. They’re becoming more challenging and asking the correct questions.”
However, she also cautioned that it would not be easy to change the views of locals. “Small sites are really emotional,” she said. “They are those bits of green space where people walk their dog, or that garage where people store their possessions.
“The policy on small sites, ones with 25 houses or fewer will, in my mind, be far harder to implement than larger regeneration projects. People don’t like change. People move to the suburbs for a quiet life, and now we’re saying we need to intensify development.”
Murray added that it would take time – as well as commitments on infrastructure and affordable housing – to build enough trust so that people living in outer London would start to welcome new homes, rather than oppose them.
Clued-up Londoners
“Londoners are very clued up. They’re becoming more challenging and asking the correct questions, and this is absolutely the right thing,” he said.
Vicky fowler, head of planning at law firm Gowling WLG, pointed out that the London Plan’s small sites policy had a target of 250,000 new homes over the next 10 years, meaning that many small sites would have to come forward if the target was to be met.
Berkeley chairman Tony Pidgely said he was “very supportive of SMEs” as developers of these small sites, adding that there were far too few of them in the market.
“Why are they not here any more? The banks won’t lend to them. That is their number-one problem. They have to borrow the money from the money men, not the banks, and get far worse rates.
“They don’t stand a chance. We need to persuade the government to help those SMEs. In Surrey, when I was starting out, I had 40 competitors. Today, they’ll be lucky to have two.”
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