Brent’s Council Housing – A Tale of Two Sites. The reality behind Brent Council press releases

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

From the Brent Council website home page, 18 March 2024.

 

Two news items about Council housing on Brent’s website caught my eye this month. Before I look at these schemes individually, let’s have a recap about their targets for affordable homes.

 

When Brent’s New Council Homes Programme was launched five years ago, the aim was for 5,000 affordable homes to be built in the borough between April 2019 and March 2024 inclusive. As part of that aim, the Council set itself ‘a strategic target of delivering 1,000 new council homes at genuinely affordable rent by 31 March 2024.’

 

Promise’s “promise”, from the Spring 2024 edition of “Your Brent” magazine.

 

Having failed to meet those targets by next Sunday, the Council is doing its best to ignore that fact, and to publicise their new target instead. The ‘5,000 affordable homes in total within Brent’ is given an extra four years, and although an extra 700 new Council homes is added to the target to be achieved by 2028, rather than March 2024, they are no longer promised to be at genuinely affordable rent.

 

The Brent news release banner, from the Council’s website on 15 March 2024.

 

The first housing scheme that a Brent news release celebrated this month was the start of construction on the Neville and Winterleys site in South Kilburn. Among the white hard hat “crowd” in this Council publicity photograph are “the usual suspects” from Brent’s Cabinet, including the Council Leader with a spade (as in the Watling Gardens “groundbreaking” photo last October). But who are the others in this “flash mob”? Are they local residents waiting to be rehoused, celebrating that something is actually happening, or workers from a nearby site operated by the same contractor? Please add a comment below if you know the answer.

 

Brent applied for planning permission for this development in December 2018 (application 18/4920), and these were the details of the homes, and split between Social Rented and Private Sale, approved by Brent’s Planning Committee on 18 February 2020 (more than four years ago!):

 

Extract from the Final Officer Report to the 18 February 2020 Planning Committee meeting.

 

After minor changes to the design, the number of flats to be built here has been increased from 219 to 225, but the number of Council homes has gone down from 112 to 95. Despite this, Brent’s Lead Member for Regeneration can still put a positive “spin” on the numbers:

 

Extract from Brent’s 15 March 2024 news release.

 

The “almost half” is actually 42.2% of the new homes, and these will all be for existing Council tenants in South Kilburn, being decanted from other blocks that will be demolished as part of the troubled South Kilburn Regeneration Project. None of the ‘more than 200 much-needed homes’ will go to provide housing at genuinely affordable rents for local families on the Council’s waiting list, even though the 95 for existing tenants will be counted as ‘new Council homes’. 

 

Despite Brent celebrating the start of construction now, those homes may not be built in time for the 2028 target, as the news release says: ‘The scheme will be delivered by Countryside Partnerships (part of Vistry Group) and is due for completion by 2029.’ [I may add a comment below later about Vistry Group.]

 

Another Brent news release banner, again picturing some of “the usual suspects”, on 18 March 2024.

 

The second housing scheme that Brent issued a news release for this month is the former Euro House site in Wembley Park, now known as Fulton and Fifth. The development initially received planning consent in December 2020 for a total of 493 homes, which was increased to 759 (of which 218 would be “affordable”) under a second application to Planning Committee in November 2021 (with one Labour member, since removed from the committee, voting against approval). From the news release, it seems that the final figure is 876 homes, with 294 of them as new “affordable” Council homes.

 

It's amazing how many homes you can squeeze onto a site of 1.29 hectares, which used to be a two-storey warehouse. And the five towers have gone up quickly, as you can see on the left in this photograph, which I took earlier this month, while looking at what had happened to parts of the British Empire Exhibition grounds of 100 years ago (when there was a coal mine here!):

 

The Fulton and Fifth site, with its tower cranes, seen across Engineers Way from Canada Gardens.

 

It is very good news that all 294 ‘will go to council tenants on the council’s housing waiting list.’ But, as they say, ‘the devil is in the detail’, and these are homes that the Council is buying, on long leases, from a private developer, not Council homes that Brent is building itself.

 

In the 2021 proposals, there would only have been 80 homes for London Affordable Rent (“LAR”), with 62 “affordable” at no more than Local Housing Allowance (“LHA”) rent level and 76 for Shared Ownership. I explained LHA and Shared Ownership in detail, in a November 2022 guest post. 

 

The press release says that now ‘118 will be at London Living Rent, and 176 homes will be rented at London Affordable Rent.’ 176 homes at the “genuinely affordable” LAR rent level will be very welcome (although that rent level does not include a cap on the level of service charges). But 176 is slightly less than the 181 which will be sold privately, or as Shared Ownership, on Brent Council’s own development at Cecil Avenue in Wembley, with only 56 of the 237 being built at that site for rent to Council tenants at LAR level!

 

You may not be familiar with London Living Rent (“LLR”), so I will take this opportunity to explain what it means. It was introduced by the Mayor of London, and the GLA website says: ‘London Living Rent is a type of intermediate affordable housing for middle-income Londoners who want to build up savings to buy a home. … it is designed to help people transition from renting to shared ownership.’

 

To qualify for an LLR home, you need to live or work in London, be in housing need, but not be able to afford to buy a home (even a Shared Ownership one!) and have a household income of no more than £60k a year. Your tenancy, if you get an LLR home, will be for a minimum of three years, and up to ten years. During that time, you will be expected to save, so that you can buy a share of your home through Shared Ownership.

 

London Living Rent levels from 1 January 2024 for each Brent Council Ward. (From a GLA spreadsheet)

 

LLR rent levels are based on one third of average local household incomes, on a Ward-by-Ward basis across the capital, and are recalculated each year. Currently, the monthly LLR rent level for a 1-bedroom flat in Wembley Park would be £1080, rising to £1320 for a 3-bedroom home. For 2024, there is a cap of £1400 a month for LLR rents.

 

Extract from Brent’s 18 March 2024 news release.

 

What the LLR rent levels for Wembley Park will be in 2026, if the promised homes are ready in ‘just two years from now’, will depend on figures for household incomes in that area. Given the large number of new Quintain Living (and other private) apartments being let, and the rents that people have to pay for them, “local household incomes” are likely to rise, with the LLR rents rising as well.

 

Quintain Living advert, photographed on a Jubilee Line train in March 2024.

 

As an example of what is currently charged by Quintain Living, the advert above says that you can rent a studio apartment from £1703 a month. That’s more than £20,400 a year for a home only big enough for one or two people, so not affordable for most local people in housing need. (You have to look very closely for the “small print” on ‘one month rent free’, as it’s printed in white on a light background – it only applies to selected unfurnished apartments with a minimum 12-month tenancy.)

 

One final point on Brent’s affordable housing at the Regal London Fulton Road development. 294 homes is only 33.5% of the total being built there. Brent’s own planning policies say that at least 70% of the affordable housing provided on large developments should be “genuinely affordable”, but the Council’s 176 LAR homes are just under 60%, while the 118 “intermediate” LLR homes account for just over 40%. Not even following their own rules!

 

I hope you have found my latest look at Brent’s Council housing of interest. I’m sure it is more informative than Brent Council’s press releases!

 

Philip Grant.

 

 

EDITOR'S FOOTNOTE

 

Meanwhile MYLONDON reports on private renting:

 

The average cost of renting privately in one North West London borough has exploded over the past 12 months. Since February last year, tenants in Brent have seen their housing costs increase sharper than anywhere else in the country, leaving some residents feeling like life has become about nothing more than simply working to afford the extortionate prices.

 

The cost of renting the average private home in Brent is 20 per cent more expensive than it was in February 2023, according to data from the government’s Housing Market Indices Team. This increase is five per cent more than the next worst affected London borough, and more than double the national average.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION FROM PHILIP GRANT

 FULTON AND FIFTH SITE:

In case anyone is wondering how the 759 home scheme approved by Brent's Planning Committee was magically increased to an 876 home development, here is the answer.

Among the many further planning applications arising from conditions set out in the November 2021 planning consent was application 22/3123, seeking variations of (among others) 'conditions 2 (approved drawings/documents), 3 (residential units)'.

One of the variations was to add an additional floor within the buildings, making the tallest 24 storeys rather than the 23 approved, but to do so without raising the consented height of the building.

How do you do that? By reducing the ceiling height of the flats on each floor! The ceiling height would now be 2.5 metres, which is still acceptable for housing standards. One of the two blocks where this reduction would be made was block E, with 176 homes - and it is no coincidence that 176 is the number of homes for LAR which Brent Council tenants will be offered!

This planning application did not go to Brent's Planning Committee. It was approved by a Delegated Team Manager, and signed off by Brent's Head of Planning on 9 June 2023.

This was despite the Report on the application saying: 'It is acknowledged that the proposal would continue to be in excess of the indicative site capacity of the whole site allocation,' - squeezing them in, as my article points out!

The Report also says: 'Of the 876 units, 122 of these would be 3-bed (13.9%). Under the extant consent, 79 out of the 759 units were approved to be 3-bed (10.4%). While there is an uplift of 3-bed units, these still fall short of the requirement for 1 in 4 dwellings within a development to be 3 bedrooms or more, sought by the Local Plan Policy BH6.' So, a big shortfall in the family-sized homes which Brent desperately needs.

The 3-bed flats which Brent Council will receive are shown to be 56 for LAR in block E and 36 for LLR in block D. (That's 56 family-sized homes for "genuinely affordable" rent in a development of 876 homes!).

1 Morland Gardens – Is Brent Council “busy doing nothing”?

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The Victorian villa, “Altamira”, at Hillside, Stonebridge, in October 2023.

 

When I was growing up in the 1950s, there was a song by Bing Crosby that I often heard on the BBC Light Programme (now Radio 2). It was fun to listen to, and the words have stuck in my brain: ‘We’re busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do ….’

 

I’m beginning to wonder whether the Council are singing that tune over 1 Morland Gardens. It is now more than four months since I wrote that Brent was reviewing its plans for this site in Stonebridge, after the 2020 planning consent for its proposed development there had expired. A report was supposed to be prepared, for submission to Brent’s Cabinet, with new proposals for the site. No report has yet emerged, and there is nothing on the Council’s Forward Plan for such a report to go to Cabinet in April or May 2024.

 

Although the original plans were flawed, including as they did the demolition of a locally listed heritage building and the construction of flats over a community garden, causing air quality problems, the site could still be used for a sensible development. This could include an updated college facility for Brent Start (currently stuck in a temporary home that the Council moved it out to, at a cost of £1.5m), or other community use, and some much needed affordable housing, while retaining and re-using the 150-year old Victorian villa, which was, until recently, in excellent condition.

 

Doing nothing with the now vacant Council-owned building would be worse than doing something. And damage caused to the building, while it was in the hands of contractors last year, is in urgent need of repair. So, what is Brent Council planning to do? 

 

In order to find out, I sent this open email to Brent’s Chief Executive and Head of Capital Projects on 25 March, headed: 1 Morland Gardens, NW10 - its future, and the protection of this Victorian heritage building.

 

This is an Open Email

 

Dear Ms Wright and Mr Martin,

 

1. I was told last November that, following the expiry of the Council's planning consent for its proposed 1 Morland Gardens development, a review of future plans for the property was being carried out, headed by Mr Martin, and that this would report back with proposals to Brent's Cabinet for a decision.

 

I submitted a paper to that review on 20 November 2023, but four months later, the report of that review has not yet been published or submitted to Cabinet, and it is not shown as an item for decision during the next two months on the Forward Plan.

 

Please let me know whether the review has been completed. If it has, when will the report be submitted to Cabinet, and made publicly available? If the review has not yet been finalised, please let me know the reason for the delay, and the date by which the report and recommendations on the future of 1 Morland Gardens are expected to be ready.

 

2. In my open letter of 30 October to you, Ms Wright, I finished by including a photograph of damage to the slates on the roof of the Victorian villa (which had been carefully restored by Brent Council in the mid-1990s, to provide a permanent home for its adult education college). I wrote: 'please ensure that urgent action is taken to replace the missing slates on the roof of 1 Morland Gardens, so that the condition of the empty property is not allowed to deteriorate further.'

 

Following the unsatisfactory reply to that point by Mr Ghani, on your behalf, I wrote again on 20 November, saying: 'There have been further strong winds and heavy rain since I saw the heritage building three weeks ago, so that point is even more urgent now, if expensive damage to the fabric of the property is to be avoided.'

 

It appears that nothing has been done to address this damage to the property, and it has got worse during the winter weather. Here are three photographs, taken yesterday (24 March) by a fellow "Friend of Altamira", with arrows indicating the damaged areas:-

 

Front view of 1 Morland Gardens, showing missing slates, 24 March 2024.

 

 

1 Morland Gardens from corner of Hillside, showing missing slates on south wing of Victorian villa.

 

 

1 Morland Gardens, showing serious damage to slate roof on north wing of Victorian villa.

 

The initial damage was not present when the building was occupied by "Live-in Guardians" up until January 2023, so was probably caused by contractors during the time that 1 Morland Gardens was under the control of the Hill Group (possibly during asbestos survey work). I realise that those removing slates at the edge of the roof thought at the time that the building would be demolished, so that failing to put them back in place did not matter. 

 

However, this locally listed heritage asset (one of only two in Stonebridge Ward) is not currently due for demolition. It would be a travesty if its condition was allowed to deteriorate further, particularly if this was deliberate neglect by Brent Council, to use as an excuse for further proposals to demolish this much-loved, beautiful and still eminently usable Victorian building. 

 

As a reminder, if any were needed, Brent's own adopted Historic Environment policy on "Valuing Brent's Heritage" states:

 

'The effective preservation of historic buildings, places and landscapes and their stewardship is therefore fundamental to the Council's role.'

 

I am copying this email to the Lead Member for Customers, Community and Culture, and to the councillors for Stonebridge Ward, for their information.

 

I look forward to receiving an update on the situation over the review of the future of 1 Morland Gardens, and to hearing that the necessary repairs to the roof of the Victorian building are being carried out. Thank you. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.

 

Some history events in Brent which may be of interest!

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant 

 

Passport of Lotte Rosendahl, issued in 1939. [The Jawne Team / Courtesy of Yael Nemenoff]

 

There is a variety of history events taking place locally over the next month or so, which you may not have heard or read about. Martin has kindly agreed that I can share the details with you, so that you can make the most of what is on offer, if they are of interest to you.

 

Already on, in the family space at Willesden Green Library, is a small exhibition which opened on Holocaust Memorial Day called "Kindertransport Children in Willesden". It tells the stories of some of the around 10,000 unaccompanied children who were brought to this country to escape the growing Nazi threat to Jews in German-controlled lands in 1938-39. The passport pictured above was issued to one of them. This exhibition is only available to view until 28 February.

 

 

Also taking place at Willesden Green Library, in the Exhibition Gallery on the second floor from Monday 19 February, is a major Brent Museum / Learning through the Arts exhibition: “The Road to Freedom – Ending Slavery in Britain”. This free exhibition will be on until the beginning of September (but if you go in the opening week, you can also see the Kindertransport exhibition in the same visit!).

 

It is only 190 years ago that slavery was finally abolished throughout the British Empire. I wrote about the inhuman stain of slavery (and the indentured labour which followed it) on our history, in an article last month about why we should commemorate the centenary of the British Empire Exhibition. 

 

The title of Nabil Al-Kinani’s talk on Friday 16 February.

 

As part of that commemoration, Wembley History Society is welcoming Nabil Al-Kinani, to share a different perspective at its meeting on Friday 16 February at 7.30pm. Nabil’s talk, on “Decolonising Wembley” will explore the legacy of the 1924 Exhibition, examining the attitudes of the time, and asking whether the 21^st Century developments in the Wembley Park area reflect a more modern and sensitive take on our post-colonial world. Visitors are welcome, for a small charge, at the Society’s meetings, which take place at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 8RZ.

 

Liam MacCarthy, and the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

 

One country which had recently been given semi-independent Dominion status, within the British Empire, in the early 1920s was the Irish Free State. Two men, whose names are now remembered through sporting trophies, for hurling and Gaelic football, are the subject of a much-anticipated talk at Willesden Green Library, on Thursday 14 March at 6.30pm. One was born in London, to Irish parents, while the other came to work here as a Civil Servant, and both were heavily involved in the capital’s branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Marcus Howard’s talk on “Liam MacCarthy and Sam Maguire: The Forgotten Sons of Ireland” will look at their political, as well as their sporting activities. You can find more details and reserve your free place for this talk on this Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage Eventbrite page.

 

Sam Maguire (centre, with ball), captain of the London Hibernians Gaelic football team, 1903.

 

If you missed the premier of the film “Brent Women of Renown” last November, there is another chance to see it at a Willesden Local History Society meeting on Wednesday 20 March at 7.30pm. The three women featured are Kilburn suffragette Violet Doudney, aviator Amy Johnson and Dame Stephanie Shirley, who came to Britain as a five-year old Kindertransport child, and grew up to become a mathematician and pioneer computer engineer at the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill.

 

Amy Johnson working at Stag Lane Aerodrome, early 1930.

 

The film will be presented by its producer Angela Payne, and director Amanda Epe, who will also talk about the Cricklewood Town Team project which led to its creation. The meeting takes place at St Mary's Parish Centre, Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS. Non-members of the Society will be welcome to attend, for a small charge.

 

Car bodies under construction at Kingsbury Works in 1924.

 

The last event I will mention is a free illustrated local history talk which I will be giving myself, at a Kingsbury Library coffee morning on Tuesday 26 March at 11am. Kingsbury is now seen as a mainly residential area, but during the First World War its rural fields provided space for several aircraft factories. “Kingsbury Works, 1915 to 1980” tells the story of one of these (with lots of pictures!), and how the buildings there developed after they were taken over by Vanden Plas coachbuilders in 1923.

 

A 1935 Kingsbury-built Bentley limousine, which went on a sales tour around India.

 

Since I first gave this talk online during lockdown, I’ve found out even more about Kingsbury Works, and gathered many more illustrations, so I am looking forward to sharing this version at a Brent Libraries event. The most recent addition to my information is the site’s association with vampires (but no need to send for Buffy)! You can find more details, and book your free place for this talk, on the Eventbrite page for it.

 

Philip Grant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brent Library Events - Things can improve if the Council will listen

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

Last month I wrote about “Some Great Library Events – but where can you find them online?” I commented underneath that post: 

 

‘As regular readers of articles and comments will know, I'm a great believer in letting those in power at Brent Council know if there is something I feel strongly about. 

 

It is not just to complain or criticise, but to try to help them to "get things right", for the benefit of the local community, and Brent Council itself. I'm sure they would do a better job if more people took the trouble to let them know about things that don't seem right (although whether they will listen is often a problem!).’

 

I sent a copy of my article, with some suggestions for how things could be improved, to the Cabinet Lead Member for Customers, Communities, and Culture, Cllr. Fleur Donnelly- Jackson, and asked her ‘to forward it to the Council Officers whose action is required to sort out the problems.’ She replied to my email a few days later, and I’m glad to say that there have already been some improvements, with more to come.

 

I will set out, at the bottom of this post, for everyone’s information, the text of the email I received on 7 February from Brent’s Head of Libraries, Collections and Heritage Services. First, though, let me tell you how you can now easily get details on Brent Libraries events, and book places on them, on the Council’s website.

 

From the home page of Brent Council’s website ( www.brent.gov.uk ), look under the heading “Find the service you need” and “click” on the box that says “Libraries, arts and heritage”. On that page, “click” on the box that says “Libraries”, and when that page comes up, scroll down to this brightly coloured section:

 

 

As you will see, that section now contains two “links”. The first, “View our booklet to see what’s on at your local library”, will take you to an online version of the booklet you can pick up from your regular Brent Council Library. The second, “Book for selected events on our Eventbrite page”, takes you to the site with details of all the forthcoming events, and each one includes a box you can “click” on to reserve your place at it. Here is an example:

 

It just goes to show, and I hope Brent Council and its councillor members will take note, that things can improve if they listen to what residents make the effort to tell them. [I must add a special thank you to Jayne, whose comment under my previous post about her personal experience of trying to find details of a library event online was passed on to Brent Libraries - I’m sure that it helped to make things happen!] 

 

When I wrote my guest post last month, the new Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage Eventbrite website had only 48 followers. I’d like to think that “Wembley Matters” readers have helped to boost that number, which has now almost doubled. Spread the word, because there are plenty of great, free, local events which we can enjoy!

 

 

As mentioned above, this is the text of the email I received (copied to Cllr. Donnelly-Jackson, who had asked for action, in response to my contacting her) on 7 February:

 

Dear Philip,

 

Thank you for drawing the subject of Eventbrite publicity for Brent Libraries Arts and Heritage to our attention.

 

Thank you for alerting us to the issue concerning programme publicity as it is very important to inform Brent residents and indeed people living outside of Brent about the wonderful range of free programming on offer. Our aim has always been to offer culture on residents’ doorstep.

 

In order to improve Council wide publicity for all events it was agreed to bring all programming under one Eventbrite website umbrella last Autumn. This resulted in a rebranded name for Brent Culture which is as you have highlighted now called Libraries, Arts and Heritage which actually provides more clarity and better reflects the range of events we offer.

 

Work is still being done to update customers about this change. We signpost residents to the popular What's On guides from the Libraries section of our website and in line with your suggestion, we have also now added the Eventbrite link (see below image). In addition, we included the link to the new Eventbrite page in the latest Spring What’s On guide and will also refer people to the new page in future editions.

 

As well as our What’s On guides, we do also publicise our libraries events across our social media channels and through our popular Libraries and Culture e-newsletter.

 

I agree with you that we do need to ensure publicity is accessible for all, including those who may not be as familiar with QR codes or use digital channels to access information. That is why we make our What’s On guides available in all our libraries and will also look at further ways of helping spread the word about our events programme amongst those who may not be digitally enabled.

 

Lastly, we do agree that ideally all Brent Libraries events should be featured on the www.brent.gov.uk/whatson webpage and will look to introduce a new process so that this becomes more routine moving forward.

 

Thank you also for your continuing support of Libraries, Arts and Heritage programming and indeed publicising our upcoming events in Wembley Matters.  

 

Regards,

Amit

 

Head of Libraries, Collections and Heritage Services

 

So that’s more improvements to look forward to – well worth the effort of letting the Council know (this time).

Philip Grant.