Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth Council said: “Delivering genuinely affordable homes for local families is one of our core priorities as a council. Despite the perfect storm that has caused housebuilding across London to crash in recent years and led to this announcement from the government and Mayor of London, in Lambeth we have a strong record of delivering genuinely affordable housing.
“Last month, Lambeth’s planning committee approved a development at Somerleyton Road of over 360 homes on council-owned land. The scheme will deliver 56% social and affordable housing and a range of public benefits for the community including 138 homes at social rent for local families. It is one of several major schemes now moving forward that reflect the scale of our ambition for Lambeth.
“At Clapham Park, one of London’s largest estate regenerations, over 4,000 homes are currently being delivered – over half of which will be affordable – and where every existing resident will soon be living in a new or refurbished home. And at 49 Brixton Station Road, we’ve entered into a partnership to bring forward hundreds of new affordable homes as part of our programme to deliver over 2000 homes on our own land between now and 2030. Our ambitious Lambeth Growth Plan, published earlier this year, aims to enable 10,000 new homes in the borough in the next 10 years, securing as many genuinely affordable homes as we can.
“Today’s announcement reflects the very difficult environment that we are working in to build these homes, and we welcome measures to force developers who sit on empty land to build quickly because families need these homes without delay. We also welcome the government’s allocation of record-levels of funding to deliver genuinely affordable homes across the country, including over £11 billion in London that we will be working on closely with the Mayor of London to ensure we can maximise the opportunities to build homes in Lambeth.”
Cllr Danny Adilypour, Deputy Leader (Housing, Investment and New Homes) said: “Lambeth is at the forefront of the national housing crisis, with over 28,000 households on our waiting list and more than 4,600 families going to sleep every night in temporary accomodation. This crisis is a tragedy for every family affected and is placing unsustainable pressure on local council budgets.
“The answer to the crisis is to deliver the genuinely affordable homes that local people need, and we welcome all measures to speed up housing delivery due to the urgency of the crisis.
“We await more details on the specifics through consultation, but it is important that the proposed percentage of affordable housing for the new fast track process is time-limited and serves as only a starting point for negotiations.
“In Lambeth we have consistently achieved above the previous threshold and will aspire to do so again on all our developments so we can maximise the number of genuinely affordable homes delivered through development. Just last month, I met local families in Gipsy Hill who had moved into the council’s 100% social housing development at Roman Rise. Every new home we deliver in Lambeth is a life transformed and our ambition is to do that for many more families as quickly as possible.”
More details of the plans announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Mayor of London are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-announced-to-ramp-up-housebuilding-in-london. The plans will be subject to consultation with local authorities and housebuilders.
