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Comment: Homes for all
Evening Standard18.07.08
Westminster Council's plans to build more than 500 new homes are a positive development - as long as they come to fruition. Well over half will either be for rental or for sale at affordable prices. If anything like this number get built, it will help vindicate Mayor Boris Johnson's approach to affordable homes for key workers. While the Mayor has yet to set out his plans in detail, he has promised to scrap Ken Livingstone's 50 per cent target for affordable homes to encourage councils to come up with more imaginative solutions.
There is a potential problem in the parlous state of the housing market: the scheme depends on developer City West Homes being able to build and sell 107 homes at market price. The location of some of sites in areas including Little Venice, Hyde Park and Bayswater is also likely to cause battles with existing residents; as yet, the plans are still a way off planning permission. Moreover, the council has a chequered past in managing its housing. Following the homes-for-votes scandal of the Eighties, the borough was last year forced to announce a £49 million buy-back scheme for homes that had been sold, handing some owners a 20-fold profit. But this plan is an encouraging development. Even in a downturn, London remains short of affordable homes - and Westminster is showing how councils can respond.
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