Don't be fooled by Brent's claims on 'affordable' housing

Following Wednesday's Planning Committee Brent Council's communications (public relations) team were quick off the mark hailing the decisions as 'Hundreds of new homes given the go ahead by Brent Council' what they omitted was that these new homes are not ones that Brent residents can afford to buy.

The press release quoted Cllr Margaret McLennan

Cllr Margaret McLennan, Deputy Leader of Brent Council, said:

"We're serious about making this borough an amazing place to live and are working hard to build the homes that people need. We know that house prices are a massive issue and are pressing developers to deliver as many affordable units as possible.

"This is a huge development and we're proud that once completed, Wembley will have over 11,500 new homes, with around 32% affordable housing across the Wembley Masterplan area.

"The approval of these plans shows that we are serious about regenerating the area, creating the much-needed new homes, jobs, apprenticeships and economic opportunities for local people and demonstrates that Brent is very much open for business."

Monthly rents in Quintain development

The word 'affordable' is the misnomer here as affordable in this context means 'up to 80% of market rent including service charges'.  Landlords will go up to that maximum to get the highest return possible on their investment.  Developers in Wembley have time and again attempted to reduce the amount of affordable housing in their projects on grounds of financial viability so it is clear they will go for the maximum.

Cllr McLennan heralds 32% affordable housing (80% market rent) but Brent's Core Strategy CP2 states that 50% of new homes in the borough should be 'affordable':

'the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing will be sought when negotiating on individual private residential and mixed use schemes, with due regard to a number of factors, including development viability'

The key is in the last three words, each of the schemes have external viability studies that claim to show that they will not be viable without a reduced proportion of 'affordable' housing.  Viability studies are controversial and in the past Cllr Marquis, chair of the Planning Committee, has attempted to challenge them.They were labelled a 'dark art' by the former Mayor of London. LINK

There is an additional 'intermediate category' that is often added to the 'affordable' category for public relations purposes.  The definition is vague:

'intermediate houses for sale and rent provided at a cost above social rent but below market level'

Even 'social rent' is problematic with housing associations becoming developers in their own right and adopting the 'up to 80% of market rent' policy.

Having established the context does the detail suggest that the press release is no more than Brent Council doing Quintain's public relations for them?

Planning officers argue that there is no necessity to provide affordable housing on the Arena Square/Powerleague site because affordable housing to meet requirements is provided elsewhere in Quintain's development. Whether this is achieving the 'maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing' is a matter for debate.

Bedrooms	Private	Up to 80% market rent	Intermediate	Social
APEX HOUSE
1	56	11	12	0
2	77	9	4	0
3	18	4	4	0
ARENA SQ
Studio	36	0	0	0
1	138	0	0	0
2	157	0	0	0
3	9	0	0	0
COTTRELL HOUSE			Shared ownership
Studio	6	0	0	0
1	13	2	1	0
2	15	4	3	0
3	8	3	0	0

It is worth noting that all of these developments are in Tokyngton ward where Cllr Butt, leader of Brent Council, is a councillor along with Cllrs Ketan Sheth and Hylton.  None of them made any representations at the Planning Committee  or submitted comments on the applications.

FURTHER NOTE

A point made on Facebook discussions of this posting is that the 'up to  80%' definition of affordable is the former London Mayor, Boris Johnson's fault and not that of Brent Council.  My gripe is that the Council's press release and Margaret McLennan's flag waving, perpetuates the myth that this is genuinely affordable by residents and therefore good news.  Cllr Mashari does recognise the reality.

Former councillor James Powney has posted this on his blog LINK:

A lot of controversy is generated by the term "affordable housing", since in London especially, it is often far from affordable.  Here is a quick summary of the main types of housing sent to me by a senior housing officer:

Affordable Rent- for family units are usually 60-65% of market rents or the LHA (whichever is the lower), whereas 1-2 bed units are up to 80% of market rent or LHA (whichever is the lower).

 

Social Rent - averages out at 50% of market rent, may be slightly higher (usually 5%) above Social Rent target rents.

 

Intermediate Rent- above both Affordable or Social Rent, but will be below the market value, approx. 90% of market rent.

A photographic tour of the new Wembley

Many years ago I went to a sparsely attended exhibition at the now demolished Wembley Conference Centre about plans for the development of the area around Wembley Stadium.

When I commented that the artist's impressions made it look like Croydon a Labour councillor retorted, 'So what's wrong with Croydon'.

Recently I showed a colleague from the south of Brent around the new developments, including the Civic Centre and he was quite astonished.  He remarked that he seldom had need to come to Wembley except to visit the Town Hall so had  really little idea of the redevelopment taking place and the scale of investment involved.

There are probably many in Brent and further afield who have not registered the extent of the changes in what the Brent and Kilburn Times this week as 'glittering redevelopments transforming Wembley'.

There have been changes in Quintain's plans since those early days, not least the fact that family housing seems to have been put on the back burner despite thj shortage of such housing in Brent. Instead there are 2,500 student apartments in the pipeline and countless hotels. Perhaps the great risk is the dependence on retail with the set piece 'London Designer Outlet' at the centre of the strategy. The claim (hope) is that as the only such outlet within the M25 it will attract visitors from across London. Some big names have signed up and with the Outlet opening in Autumn 2013 we shall soon see if it successful.

Brent Council's aim is to retain visitors to the stadium so that they stay in Brent to celebrate rather than going up West but also to attract locals and visitors on non-event days.  A multi-screen cinema is planned and there is talk of an FA sponsored National Football Museum.  The Brent Civic Centre has been fully booked for hard-hat tours next Friday and Saturday but questions remain about its accessibility, including the library, on event days.

Locals have commented on the 'spoiling' of  the view of Wembley Stadium by some of the new development as well as what appears to be a muddle of new buildings and sume sunless 'canyons'  rather than the careful cityscape that was promised.

Watch the video and make up your own minds.

Riots and financial turmoil just short-term issue say Quintain

Reuters report that Quintain, developers of the regeneration site around Wembley Stadium are unfazed by the riots:

Quintain Estates, the urban regeneration specialist behind Wembley City in north London, said rioting in the capital over recent days will not damage the city's long-term appeal

The company, which is also developing part of the Greenwich peninsula on the river Thames, said sentiment would only be affected in the short-term by the rioting and current financial market turmoil.

"I firmly believe over the long-term London prospects remain robust," Chief Executive Adrian Wyatt said in a statement today..

In June the company said it had sold land and development contracts to Keystone Partners for a 660-bedroom student accommodation building at Wembley City for £53m..

Quintain still in the red

Quintain Estates and Development, developers of Wembley City, reported this week that it was still in the red in the year up to March 2010.

Although it has reduced its losses to £10.1m, from the high of £129.1m in 2009, its shares still slid by 6% in initial trading. Its net asset value fell back by 1.5%. The company was forced to sell off some of its assets for a total of £82.5m and cut administrative costs by 12.4%.

The value of its Wembley City properties, ear-marked for development of shops restaurants, bars, offices, entertainment and homes, continue to flat-line and have not bounced back following the property slump in line with other London property prices. Last year Quintain was in talks in the Middle East to off-load some of its Wembley properties.

The newly elected Brent council will need to monitor Quintain's activities closely and pay particular regard to infrastructure improvements that were part of the initial deal including new schools and health facilities. They need to ensure that these are costed and included in Quintain's plans, rather than placed on the back burner or quietly shelved on grounds of affordability.