Housing

Why are all the new housing developments located in the poorer parts of the London boroughs.  These areas already have overcrowding anf trying to cram more people in is further lowering the standard of living, quality of life and the environment for the existing people who live there.  These new developments are against the wishes of the existing people and no one seems to be asking them before the builds were confirmed.  It does not seem fair or just, these new builds are not 'thrown' up in the richer parts of the town as they seem to have more say and leverage with the councils, whereas the poorer people are ignored so they have to put up and shut up.  Also many of our needed local shops have been bought and flattened for these new builds, thus older people have to travel further for their basic shop,  Furthermore, due to these new builds the landscape has been reduced all you can see are blocks of flats, even the trees have been cut down and this is just suffocating.

A SURPRISING decision was taken personally by the Mayor of London to select sites for building residential multi-storey tower blocks in TFL sites in London, one of which is in Finchley Central. This is done with total disregard to the needs and wishes of the local community. All objections have been ignored. Surprising because I personally voted and believed in this Mayor to be more interested in the quality of life of Londoners rather than enriching the developers who are going to be the only benefactors of this Mayor's scheme. Yes. There is a need for more flats but dropping an out of proportion tower block on a suburb is not the answer. What happened to this Mayor's integrity? 

The only way I can see to fix the crisis is to make owning more than one property cost prohibitive.

You must put a stop to people from abroad buying land, property, flats and housing in London and the UK, often off-plan. Those from abroad who are already owners in London/UK must have taxes imposed on them so that the Government and Local Authorities will at least get money that can be distributed to sponsor Social Housing for those who need it and also Help to Buy.  

It is so wrong that at the moment the developers are Russian or Chinese, for example, and are making huge profits at our expense and the expense of those who need the housing.  

Thank you for all the effort you have done for Londoners, wish everyone could have a good place to live, best wishes for everyone.

Affordable housing is a misnomer. The only affordable houses are social housing. It is a disaster selling off social housing and this should be scrapped. 

Rough sleepers seem to be a major problem in my area and they need to be helped more to get off the streets. 

Need to get a better, more sensible & relevant definition for afordable housing.  

stop overseas investors buying up housing & leaving it vacant. 

of the proposed 116000 homes to be built by 2022 how many will actually go to Londoners?

I am very concerned about the mayor's commitment to London Affordable Rent which is aimed at pleasing the developers and housing associations rather than those in need of social housing in London. Thousands of people are being socially cleansed from inner London and LAR adds to this.  Communities are destroyed and speculation and empty homes are encouraged. This must be reversed with the Mayor giving support to councils to build council housing and Housing Associations should be pushed to rent at levels equivalent to the local council

There is a wide range within the definition of "affordable housing", some part of it - are barely affordable to many Londoners. More specific targets are needed in this area, tied to real needs of people with lower not middle incomes. Publicise real winners, boroughs building housing really affordable to low income families. 

We need to build some sort of housing, support centre etc for the homeless. They are scattered everywhere and live in harsh conditions during rain and snow in the winter. At least, we all have a roof over our heads. Consider housing for the homeless!. 

One easy action would be to impose a 200% Council tax on all  properties left empty for more than six months. And then double it each month thereafter. And that goes for pubs, and other buildings left empty too.  Use it or sell it. And force land speculators to build on the land or sell it on.  

Building on 'no-field' sites, as opposed to green-field sites or brown-field sites:

Existing planning policies work AGAINST the creation of new flats in the places where they could be most easily created.

In Victorian and similar terraces (of which there are hundreds if not thousands in London) there are two identical looking properties side by side. One is a house and one is divided into flats. One has the potential to have a new flat added by means of an attic conversion and/or roof extension.

Planning rules say that the house can have a substantial roof extension under Permitted Development rights, but that just creates a bigger house. The same rules don't apply with flats, so precisely the same size extension (identical on the outside) which could create a new flat for key workers, for example, will likely be refused in the case of the building divided into flats.

London has the potential to have thousands of new flats created close to central London where all services, transport, etc, already exist. With no involvement of major developers - just individual property owners extending their properties as house owners already do.

The debate about brown-field sites versus green-field sites misses the bigger picture: no-field sites on existing buildings.

Ealing minus 1296 social rented homes, Southwark minus 992 social rented homes, Hackney minus 558 social rented homes, Enfield minus 465 social rented homes, Barnet minus 423 social rented homes, Bexley minus 393 social rented homes, Havering minus 265 social rented homes, Harrow minus 35 social rented homes, Merton minus 13 social rented homes - all listed in Mayor of London's 2019 Annual Monitoring Report.

That's 9 London boroughs with a combined total of MINUS 4440 social rented homes!

According to the same 2019 Annual Monitoring Report, London's future is 2 point 2 per cent social housing (6,188 is 2.2% of 276,959 total).

It doesn't take a genius to work out the cause of London's housing crisis.

It is so sad that a city like London is not able to fight against the housing bubble, since I moved here 7 years ago the situation is just worst and worst, lot of people moving up to Manchester because it is impossible to afford the prices. Yes the government have a plan and blah blah blah.... normal citizens we don't see your plans and we are suffering with these ridiculous prices that push us to move out of the city to other cities in the UK or like my case, outside the UK. I remember I use to love London, but not anymore. Thanks London for all you gave me in the past, the future in this city is just not clear for anyone!! Byeeee

Centrally-located community blocks with communal facilities, washing machines, outside areas and storage space, etc  are needed for essential and support single workers - the residences could be shared with single older people wanting to downsize. At present, there is nowhere for older residents who do not plan to die just yet, to go. This would also facilitate some community spirit and exchange of services and information. 

end right to buy NOW !!!

OK to give tenant money to move out (after 5 years) this free up social housing for those who need it most.

Private developer MUST build social housing TO RENT, along side their luxuring appartments. (NOT 'affordable' housing which is currently NOT affordable in any sense of the definition)