Why is Boris Johnson’s housing policy such a pig’s dinner?

By Tom Copley and Nicky Gavron, London Assembly members

In the time-honoured fairy tale, the three little pigs lived in one house of straw, one house of wood and one house of bricks. But did they have to pay 80% market rent for the privilege? Boris Johnson huffs and puffs about housing in London;  but the three little pigs could do better.

On Tuesday the London Assembly had a unique opportunity to vote down the Mayor of London’s wolfish plans, which mark the end of new affordable rented housing in the capital. Boris Johnson’s changes to the London Plan will mean new “affordable” rented housing can be set at up to 80% of the market rate. Rents will be driven up, land prices will increase and the housing market will be further out of the reach of the many Londoners on low, and in some areas, modest incomes.

The reality of Boris’ changes will make huge swathes of inner London even more unaffordable than they already are. Plainly, if you are on a low or modest income there is very little chance that you will be able to afford to rent even a decent one bedroom house in most inner London boroughs. A newly qualified nurse earns £25,665 a year including London weighting. They would need to earn another £8,000 a year before they’d be able to afford even a one bed flat in Southwark at 80 per cent market rent.

London will be increasingly ghettoised with people on low incomes in one area and the rich in another. This will put an intolerable strain on a range of already overburdened local services in outer London.

Our city is celebrated for its diversity. We pride ourselves on mixed communities in which people of all different backgrounds live side by side. But that is ending. That’s why a number of boroughs, including Conservative-led local authorities, have spoken out against this ridiculous one-size-fits-all plan.

For example, true blue Westminster City Council’s assessment of Boris’ London Plan was that setting housing at 80% of Westminster’s market rent would mean they would not be able to “meet its full, objectively assessed needs for affordable housing”. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said “there is little point in maximising the delivery of affordable housing if it is not affordable”. They also stressed that the Mayor’s plan goes against the whole Localism agenda, so touted by the Conservative-led Coalition Government.

This was an historic opportunity to deal with London’s housing crisis but the Mayor is refusing to take it. These changes are so severe and will cause so many social problems that even Conservative councils have spoken against them. There are over 300,000 on waiting lists for housing in London. This will never get shorter unless boroughs are empowered and encouraged to embark on affordable house building programmes.

Boris is rejecting changes to the affordable housing policy that were recommended by the Independent Planning Inspector. The Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, has signed off the revised Plan so the London Assembly had to secure a two-thirds majority to reject the Mayor’s mindless strategy.

Unfortunately, members of the Conservative Group blocked attempts to stop the Mayor’s changes to the London Plan. This is a hammer blow and signals the death of new truly affordable housing in London.

Conservative London Assembly Members have chosen to support the Mayor ahead of the wishes of their local councils and against the best interests of their constituents. Staggeringly, four of the nine Members that voted in support of the Mayor today actually sit on Councils that have written to the Mayor to oppose the policy – yet they sided with the Mayor and supported his policies.

At our budget meeting in February, Boris Johnson described the Assembly as “supine, protoplasmic, amorphic jellies”. As their spines tiptoed out of the room after Tuesday’s vote, the Tory Group proved that when it comes to their side of the chamber the Mayor is indeed correct.

Boris Johnson’s London Plan makes a mockery of the localism agenda. In 2011 he pledged to bring back the village spirit to London, yet two years later his real intentions have been revealed. And to hell with the people that won’t be able to afford to live here anymore. Boris might even call it Kosovo-style social cleansing.

Tom Copley AM is City Hall Labour’s Housing spokesperson and Nicky Gavron AM is City Hall Labour’s Planning spokesperson.