Havering’s Future at Risk: Local Services Overwhelmed by New Housing Plans
Former Councillor and Cabinet Member for Development and Regeneration, Graham Williamson, has shared his views on the Mayor of London’s draft London Plan and what he believes it could mean for Havering. Writing for The Havering Daily, Williamson argues that the proposed housing targets go far beyond the headline figures and raises concerns about the potential impact on local infrastructure, planning decisions and communities across the borough. His article appears in full below.
HOUSING TARGETS
The Havering Daily ran a couple of articles recently concerning the consultation of the new Draft London Plan. In particular it refers to the new housing targets for Havering (and all boroughs). They did mention a figure of 12,060 properties to be delivered over the next 10 years. In reality this is merely the new ‘Greenfield’ (Green or Greybelt) target (only 8 out of 34 areas have one!) as there is ANOTHER target on top of approving 9,652 units on ‘brownfield’ (previously developed) land i.e., a TOTAL figure of 21,712 (2,171/year).
To put this target in perspective, the borough has only seen built per year (with one exception) around 500 properties let alone over 2k !
1.5M HOMES
The new figure and for most of the other boroughs is an attempt by the GLA to help meet the Government’s political target of delivering 1.5m properties nationwide by the next General Election. It will not be successful imo due to the economic reality of inflated construction costs. Nevertheless, the Government and supporting authorities will try their hardest to do so and I fear at the cost of local communities.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Many residents regularly complain about the lack of adequate ‘infrastructure’ e.g., GP’s, hospitals, schools, highways etc. The existing services have come under strain for many years as they have not kept up with the demands of new residents. The funding of such largely falls upon a Council’s CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) raised from developers. However, even when introduced back in September 2019, it was thought to be 60% short of what was required overall. The Government however, in an effort to make large applications potentially more financially viable, is reducing the liability to developers by up to 50% (at Councils cost).
Clearly, there will be higher density applications to meet the LP and it even sees the targets as a minimum and not as an end in itself. Furthermore, the LP suggests market housing should take less account of local needs e.g., family homes which would be a ‘drag’ on developer delivery and profits.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
If future planning applications become viable, they are thus likely to be even more dense in brownfield sites such as Romford and closer to stations elsewhere. Greenfield sites will be more problematic given an existing lack of public transport but the target is there regardless. Furthermore, even if Havering rejects an application, it could be either called in by the Mayor or could go to appeal. Such decision-makers are less likely to take the boroughs concerns into account. We are in uncharted territory indeed.
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