Published: Thursday 21 October 2021
Mr Mayor
The issues [the leader] and I both wanted to talk about tonight have already been raised by residents in this chamber, and outside the town hall.
They have been raised over many months, years… even decades… right across this great city. It is an issue always raised with, passion, gusto, and emotion.
I want to talk Housing. Providing, and building housing.
Mr Mayor
It is easy to fall into the traps and speak purely about bricks and mortar or about, planning, contractors, architects, SPDs, funding, height, bulk, materials, viability.
But what I want to talk about today is the importance of having a home.
And – more precisely – the importance of those who have a home playing their part in helping others to have a home. A home isn’t just a collection of walls, a roof, some windows, and hopefully some friendly neighbours.
A home is, somewhere to live, somewhere to feel safe, somewhere to return to time and again. A place to be yourself. Our homes. They are the places in which we live. The places that anchor our lives.
But, Mr Mayor, not for everybody...
This Council has a track record it cannot be proud of – we have simply built too few homes over many many years. And London… London has built too few homes in too many, many, years.
Costs have risen, prices are high, land values are inflated, social housing is unavailable to thousands of families, out of reach for children, adults, the elderly, the vulnerable, even those fleeing crime or abuse.
In the greatest capital city in the world, the state is failing to give people the ability to establish themselves. The ability to get a foothold on the ladder – to get a foothold on a better life.
So, when I see petitions like the one we saw tonight, blocking plans, or debates taking similar tones, and they do. My heart sinks.
My heart doesn’t sink because people disagree with me, or the plans this organisation has put forward to start building homes again. It sinks because I think of the families I have met, who often don’t have a voice in this debate.
Not just here in K&C, but everywhere. Because, you see, it is difficult to argue against the many variants of saying ‘not in my backyard’ when you don’t have a home, let alone a backyard of your own.
Mr Mayor, it is up to us, locally elected politicians, as leaders, to represent those that don’t have a voice as well as those that do. Those that spend years in hostels, or in grim temporary accommodation. Those that move from B&B to B&B in the hope that one day someone will help them into a home. Those that are completely homeless on our streets, or face being moved away from their roots or relatives as a last and only remaining option.
Over 2,000 local people are supposed to have signed a petition. Over 3,000 people are on our housing waiting lists, just in this one small borough.
How anyone in this chamber, outside the town hall, or anywhere in this borough could oppose building homes is beyond my own comprehension.
Mr Mayor
It is as imperative, as urgent, and as absolutely necessary as tackling climate change. To those that claim to oppose the approach, rather than the objective, I say this. I am sceptical. Probably as sceptical as you are of my intentions and the intentions of this Council.
I get that. I have said many times, trust in this Council is only just beginning to return. But that is why I meet groups, like the residents in Edenham who are here tonight, or those near Lots Road in the south of the borough.
I have met groups right across K&C, living near to sites we have earmarked for social housing. North, central, south. I listen, and I do listen.
In the case of Edenham, we have literally revamped designs and plans based on feedback from residents, after extensive consultation over many months.
They may disagree, but the reality is we have arrived at a very different design that was first drawn up at the beginning of this process.
We started with 18 and 8 floors, we then moved to 16 and 8 floors, we now have 14 and 6 floors. Not my choice, the choice and will of the community. In response to concerns about the density of development, the number of new homes proposed has been reduced from 168 to 112 homes.
That is 56 fewer homes, 56 families that will now have to wait longer before we can help them. Residents have made direct changes to these schemes, and this is ongoing; through pre-consultation events, through discussions between architects and residents, through our planning system – one of the most democratic in the world, which also looks beyond the need and picks up issues on design, safety, and impact.
But. If we are to provide people with a home. We have to meet somewhere in, or at least near to, the middle. There is no option to provide zero homes, change nothing, and hope the problem goes away – so long as our own homes, and the places in which we live, stay the same.
Mr Mayor
Housing and social housing is the most important issue to residents in this borough – they told us that – it is the central pillar to our Council Plan. With the grim statistics and reality facing us, Londoners can no longer say…
‘Housing is important to me, but only if it is built somewhere over there’.
Now is not the time to build social housing. The time to build social housing was yesterday, the day before, the day before that.
I made a commitment to build 600 new homes in this borough – at least – of which at least 300 will be for social tenants and truly affordable.
I am sticking to that commitment.
It isn’t just about building either, it is making the most of what we already have. Homes purchased for investment are left empty across London. We charge a premium on Council Tax on empty homes. We will soon trial the use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders to take temporary control of anti-social and dilapidated properties.
I will be asking the government to consider introducing enhanced powers available to enable local authorities to bring more vacant homes back into use.
We have a drive to house key workers in the wake of the pandemic, in which so many did so much for so many of us. A pilot programme last year to gauge the demand for key worker housing saw more than 325 people express their interest in 14 high-quality flats. Over 100 people have already responded to our consultation in a matter of days to open this further.
I leave you with this, from our freshly elected Mayor of London… speaking in August.
He said: “All Londoners deserve a safe, secure home with enough space to live comfortably, and private outside space to enjoy fresh air.
“I want to deliver a new generation of genuinely affordable housing in London.
“I know we can still go further, faster, working with ministers, housing associations and councils to deliver more of the homes Londoners so desperately need.”
Mr Mayor
As we embark on the closing statements to module three of the Grenfell Tower inquiry next week, it is not lost on me that housing, a home, a safe place to live, is more important now than it has ever been. Let’s not let another generation just pass us by. Thank you.