Duncan Bowie is senior lecturer in spatial planning at the University of Westminster who developed the housing policies for Ken Livingstone's London Plan - the one just replaced by Boris Johnson. In his book Politics, Planning and Homes in a World City Bowie writes:
Mayor [Livingstone's] planning decisions in support of some higher-density schemes which breached his own sustainable residential quality criteria, and his support for schemes which maximised numerical output, often irrespective of the affordability of homes or the mix between family and non-family accommodation, acted both as an encouragement to developers and as a discouragement to local planning authorities seeking to modify such proposals.
Balancing quality and quantity is always a difficult judgment, but that fact that the London Plan's numerical housing output targets were generally met in the 2000 to 2008 period, while the targets for affordable housing, social rented housing and bedroom size mix were not, does imply that the balance was wrong and that a lower numerical output might have allowed for a better performance in relation to the qualitative targets.
It could also be argued that, if more family rented homes had been provided during the period, there might have been a reduction in the number of homeless households in temporary accommodation rather than an increase, and that the dramatic increase in the number of households on waiting lists for council and housing association accommodation might have been mitigated.
I think Ken at least partially accepts that criticism - if memory serves he acknowledged not building enough larger homes when speaking at the National Housing Federation last year. But he'd certainly agree with Bowie's next point:
It would, however, be wrong to put the blame for the worsening housing position in London primarily on Ken Livingstone. The main reason for the lack of affordable housing output in London was the lack of central government investment.
I've been looking over Boris Johnson's record on housing. He's been in the happy position of having, rather late in the day for Ken, lots of (Labour) government investment in housing - �5 billion - since becoming Mayor. Whether he's put it to the best possible use is a discussion for another day, but we can all agree that the coalition has made it its business to put the brakes on all that helpful spending.
In response to this and the new housing investment powers he is soon to receive, Boris has today published initial proposals for a revised London housing strategy. In it, the Mayor sticks to the same broad objectives as his existing strategy, including "a Londonwide goal for half of all new affordable homes to be family-sized" and ensuring that "by 2016 the level of severe overcrowding in social rented housing is halved."
The Green Party's mayoral candidate Jenny Jones has wasted no time getting stuck in:
The Mayor's proposals will only see the housing crisis get worse. He knows he can't build enough homes to make ownership any more affordable, nor can he deliver secure social housing for the hundreds of thousands of low income households trapped on the waiting lists.
Who has the best ideas for dealing with our deepening housing crisis in the age of austerity? It's time for serious debate - deadly serious - to begin.
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