As the Labour Party Conference meets in Liverpool and Brent's lead member for Regeneration also takes on a leading role in the national Labour Yimby (Yes in May Backyard) Group a well-researched report has been published that raises doubts about the strategy.
The YIMBY Group seeks to label any opposition to massive housing developments as NIMBYs (Not in My Backyard) - self-interested communities interested only in maintaining their own privilege - the Public Interest Law Centre report shows that the issue is more nuanced.
Although Cllr Tatler has argued that any increase in housing supply in Brent will lower rents through market mechanisms, according to My London Office of National Statistic data shows that Brent has seen the steepest rise in rents over the past 12 months of any local area in England or Wales.
The average rent is now £2,121 per month - a rise of 33.6% since 2023. This compares with a London average rise of 9.6%.
From the Public Interest Law Centre website
“Immediate action is needed to adopt policies aligned with UN standards of affordability. Time is running out, and the impact on children in temporary accommodation is especially urgent.”
PILC has launched a report that has found that estate regeneration projects that feature demolition routinely underproduce truly affordable housing for low-income Londoners and increase rents of council and social housing by an average of more than £80 per week.
We commissioned Dr Joe Penny of UCL’s Urban Laboratory to analyse six of the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ regeneration projects across three London Boroughs including The Aylesbury Estate and The Heygate Estate.
The report has found that the word “affordable” is used with no consideration for what is truly affordable for people who need these housing options the most and there will be a net loss of 2,151 truly affordable council homes.
What is cross-subsidy estate regeneration?
The cross-subsidy approach to estate regeneration has been the dominant model of estate regeneration for the past two decades and looks set to continue under the Labour government.
It is when council estates are demolished to make way for expensive properties which are put on the market or rented privately. In theory, the new private homes fund the construction of “affordable” homes on the sites.
“As legal aid lawyers, we witness daily injustices stemming from the housing crisis. This research, for the first time, clearly demonstrates the damage caused by current “affordable” housing policies and the push for demolition, which disproportionately affects many of our brave, working-class clients” said PILC’s legal caseworker and community legal organiser Saskia O’Hara.
Challenging the narrative
The new Labour government and the Greater London Authority maintain that cross-subsidy models are the answer to the housing crisis. However this report shows that it is making it worse.
“The findings from this report evidence the urgent need for a fundamental rethink of estate regeneration in London” said Dr Joe Penny who wrote the report.
“The current cross-subsidy model is badly failing council and social housing tenants, as well as those on housing waiting lists. Truly affordable homes – that is, homes that cost no more than 30% of net household incomes – are not being replaced in sufficient quantities; social and affordable rents are increasing beyond what those on the lowest incomes can afford; and structurally sound buildings are being wasted amid a deepening housing emergency.”
Using the evidence in the fight for affordable housing
To make the evidence as accessible as possible, PILC have created a short illustrated guide to the report and a video highlighting the top 5 things you need to know about council house building in London.
These resources are designed to empower residents facing displacement from demolition of their housing estate and communities facing gentrification because of regeneration plans to challenge the plans with hard facts.
We’ve been active in supporting local residents and
grassroots campaigns to challenge injustice from gentrification for many years. |We use the law as a tool to assist,
support and empower communities at the frontline of gentrification.
We work to support local residents and campaigns to shift the power balance
away from demolition and cross-subsidy regeneration back to the people who live
there.
As movement lawyers, we seek to be on the ground with campaigners, offering
legal services as just one tool or tactic amongst others in a campaign.
Download What Golden Era: A guide to help challenge estate demolition plans with hard facts.
Watch What Golden Era? 5 things you need to know about council house building in London.
Comment received by email: The Promise Report suggests that regenerating an estate will take at least 25 years, or in some places even longer. The model used in Brent started with NDC money in 2004 and the first Masterplan predicted that the SK programme would be completed by 2029. However as we all know, this date is no longer achievable.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of 2029 there will be a net loss of almost 14,000 homes across London and it looks likely that Brent will contribute to this net deficit.
All the Council's, including Brent are the junior partner in these developer led schemes, resulting in most estates having more private homes than council managed stock by the end of their regeneration programmes.
Towerblock Tatler really should join the Tory Party (if she hasn't already) as it obvious that that is where her politics and understanding of economics belong.
ReplyDeleteYes in my Back Yard would in literal terms would be Maida Hill, Victorian four storey terraces, where freeholders extend new tenant flats out over all these houses back yards. No surprise, Its Britain's most overcrowded neighbourhood and shares use of South Kilburn's 2 ha 24/7 park located 50 metres away.
ReplyDeleteSouth Kilburn's 'back yard' for politicians is all its remaining social, health, retail and green space life support infrastructure.
South Kilburn is on target to surpass MH on overcrowding zoned by 2040 , but how do Brent's ever more ropey (any old bland UK suburb) new conservation area extensions of 2024 factor into this radical YIMBY Labour political agenda?
Writing about a Brent Council housing development, on Council owned land at Cecil Avenue in Wembley, in a Cabinet Member Foreword to an 8 April 2024 Cabinet Report, these are the words of Brent's YIMBY Lead Member for Regeneration, Cllr Shama Tatler:
ReplyDelete'A Labour pledge met to continue using public assets for public good – balancing regeneration projects in the interests of the many in search of a new home, not the few that decry change.'
'The regeneration that underpins the Wembley Housing Zone, is exactly that – an effort to build a better Brent, a place where home ownership is a reality, not just a dream.'
Home ownership may be a dream for some, but for many more the reality is the need for a decent home at a genuinely affordable rent.
Brent could have started the process of building up to 250 new Council homes, for letting to tenants at rents they could afford, as soon as they got planning consent in February 2021 to build on the vacant brownfield former Copland School site.
But decisions lead by Cllr. Tatler, whose regeneration project it is, meant that the start was delayed while they sought a "developer partner", and work has only started on site this year, with completion (if that is achieved) scheduled for the second half of 2026.
True to her words above, 150 of the 237 homes on the site will be for private sale by Wates. The dreams of home ownership which this LABOUR councillor avows, will mean that the dreams of another 150 households (of the thousands of those in genuine housing need in our borough), for an affordable rented Council home, will be dashed.
Does Tatler really believe that building 'a better Brent' means getting rid of decent working families who can't afford home ownership?
DeleteThe towers freeholder is the owner, all subdivisions into 100's of flats are tenancies.
ReplyDeleteConverting the existing public good into the public good?
Are the built to remediate (lucratively fail as tenants must pay) towers built on the existing public good a public good? Time will tell they are not a public good at all but the design of a caste system for an extreme zoned city.
The Brent YIMBY's live in the heavy planning regulation protected conservation area hill fortresses of Brent, zonings where not just buildings but all all existing public services facilities and parks are protected and invested in as the protected public good.
ReplyDeleteDon't mention that these expanding in area in 2024 hill forts are bog standard suburban houses. Don't mention they are converting from tenanted flats back into freehold single family homes, and so are population density lowering zones.
Enjoy the policy conference!
Walking past the flats being built on the Granville Community Centres former community garden, the sign says Mayor of London Homes for All Londoners.
ReplyDeleteFor new block flats its certainly Brent open, but its brilliant because estate housing needs are banked for future use to take all land with 'fast fashion' housing, even the 2ha park (bit-by-bit) with this inhumane policy. Regeneration year 23...