Councils launch legal challenge to stop Mayor of London cutting affordable housing
The councils have jointly filed a claim for a Judicial Review of the Mayor of London's decision to adopt the Time Limited Route (TLR) 'emergency' measures. The changes mean that new developments with 20% affordable housing would no longer have to provide evidence to justify such low levels, down from the current rate of 35%.
Mayor of Lewisham Liam Shrivastava, said:
“London is in an unprecedented housing crisis, and private developers have a duty to play a role in supporting our city. It would be totally wrong to allow their profit to go unchecked while thousands of people are on councils’ housing waiting lists.“Developers should build as many affordable homes as possible; letting them get away with delivering less will have devastating consequences right across the city, pushing ordinary Londoners out.
“While we understand the challenge the Mayor of London faces in terms of a stalled house building market and a developer-led model that is broken, he has provided no justification for these changes, which will undoubtedly reduce the number of affordable homes built in London.
“In Lewisham, we’re not anti-development - far from it; we want to work with responsible developers, that are respectful of our communities and make a positive difference. To do that, we need the planning system to support the delivery of more, not less, of the affordable homes our communities need.”
Lewisham, like the rest of London, is in a housing crisis. There are 10,500 households currently on the Council’s housing waiting list. Nearly 14,000 households - or 11.5% of all households - are living in overcrowded conditions. Alongside this, we have high levels of homelessness, with 2,450 households living in temporary accommodation.
The Council is due to start building four new major, 100% affordable housing developments, delivering 421 homes - including family and accessible homes - as well as creating new jobs and opportunities for local people.
The Council has also granted planning consent to developers for over 13,000 homes, which have yet to be built - highlighting the impact of the stalled house building market. There is no evidence that Mayor of London’s changes will unlock these sites. What will unlock many of these homes is investment from the GLA and TFL in infrastructure, for example confirming investment in Surrey Canal station and the Bakerloo Line extension.
Lewisham’s Local Plan sets a target of 50% affordable homes for new developments, however the London Plan - and TLR - override this.
The legal challenge is being formally supported by four other councils - Lambeth, Southwark, Waltham Forest and Haringey - bringing the total number of London councils backing the legal challenge to seven.
The legal challenge relates to the detrimental impacts that the Mayor of London's policy would have on the ability of councils to deliver the highest levels of affordable housing for their residents, as well as relating to the lack of a fair consultation about the policy and lack of evidence justifying its adoption by the Mayor of London.