Islington in affordable homes victory

The London borough of Islington has won a major victory in the battle for more affordable housing, as Wandsworth comes under fire from Sadiq Khan for cutting the number to be built at Battersea Power Station.

The planning inspectorate last week upheld a decision by Islington to refuse planning permission to redevelop a former Territorial Army Centre on the grounds the application does not provide the ‘maximum reasonable amount’ of affordable housing.

The developers, First Base Limited, initially applied to build 96 homes on the site in 2013 with no affordable housing.

The council’s housing policy states developers must provide the ‘maximum reasonable’ amount of affordable housing, with 50% being the starting point.

After the council refused planning permission, the developer appealed and increased it’s affordable housing offer to 10%.

In its application, the developers justified the low number of affordable homes on the price they had paid for the site.

But the planning inspectorate’s decision states a ‘land owner is required to have regard to the requirements of planning policy and obligations in their expectations of land value’.

The London borough’s executive member for housing and development, Cllr Diarmaid Ward, said the viability process ‘allows developers to rely on a flawed approach to market value’, which delivers ‘little or no affordable housing’.

‘The decision from the planning inspectorate sends a strong signal that developers need to take into account planning policy requirements when bidding for land, and that they cannot overbid and seek to recover this money later through lower levels of affordable housing,’ added Cllr Ward.

Islington’s guidance specifically cautions developers against overpaying for land and using the purchase price as a reason for little or no affordable housing.

‘The viability assessment methodology is in place to allow developers to negotiate down planning obligations to make a development viable, for instance when a site requires significant remediation costs,’ commented Localis senior researcher, Jack Airey.

‘It should not, however, be a tool by which developers can side-step affordable housing obligations because they overpaid for a plot of land.

‘The planning inspectorate’s decision rightly upholds these principles and hopefully sets a precedent,’ added Mr Airey.

‘Viability assessments have been abused in recent past and it is incumbent upon both government to tighten the national planning policy framework wording and local authorities to remove ambiguity in local plans the limited exceptions in which planning obligations can be negotiated away.’

But Islington’s victory came as the London mayor Sadiq Khan criticised a decision by Wandsworth council to reduce the number of affordable homes at the Battersea Power Station development from 636 to 386 homes.

‘If we are serious about tackling London’s housing crisis, we need all councils in London to be pushing in the same direction,’ said Mr Khan. ‘This decision has let Londoners down.

‘As this was a change to planning consent granted under the previous mayor, I have no formal planning powers to stop it. However I have made formal representations to Wandsworth council urging them to withdraw the decision, and to work with me to secure the absolute maximum amount of affordable housing possible.’

Wandsworth’s planning committee met last week and approved plans by the Battersea Power Station Development Company’s to cut the number of affordable homes on the site.

The company had claimed the entire project could become financially unviable under the original plans and promised to build the 386 affordable homes earlier than previously planned.

Speaking after the vote, the chairman of the planning committee, Cllr Richard Field, said members had a ‘very difficult choice between accepting a potentially lower number of affordable homes, or refusing the application and risk losing all of them’.

‘I believe we made the right choice and in doing so have safeguarded the delivery of thousands of other affordable homes across the Nine Elms regeneration area, which are dependent on the Northern Line Extension being delivered,’ said Cllr Field.

‘This change also means that 386 affordable homes will now be built by the power station developer in 2020, two years earlier than previously planned.
‘Last year Wandsworth delivered the second highest number of affordable homes among all 33 London boroughs and we would never accept a potential reduction in low cost homes unless the case was overwhelming.’

Earlier this month, New Start reported on warnings by the Campaign to Protect Rural England that developers are backing out of agreements to build affordable homes, by claiming viability assessments show it is no longer possible to build a previously-agreed number.

And in May, the Town and Country Planning Association published research, which showed more than 60% of councils surveyed agreed that the viability test set out in the national planning policy framework has hindered their ability secure sufficient social and affordable housing.