People's Question Time Online

When will leaseholders get a fair deal? Currently local authorities view them as a money pot to suck dry. If leaseholders pay a service charge and receives no service please explain how this is fair?

Affordable homes have taken precedence over social housing. Why are so few social homes being built?

It has come to light recently that there will be a new legislation passed by Government in November that will require all existing apartments across the Country to be EWS1 certified, this has come about due to the tragic Grenfell incident, but although it is extremely important that all cladded blocks are checked for fire proofing, we are being informed that any apartment block built prior to 2007 if no cladding is present on external walls is still to be checked behind the brick, render etc.. for the insulation behind, plus any balconies to be checked for combustible material, these investigative works are to be carried out by specialist and I've been informed that there are only 500 in the county, and waitlist is extensive possibly years, and the cost of the investigation is expensive but the major concern is the cost of the remedial works which will fall on the Leasee, Private Landlord, Social Housing Provider will be thousands possibly millions, without this certificate Financial Institutions are refusing to finance purchasing of apartments and therefore London which has a significant number of apartment blocks will see a serious impact on the Housing Market, making it virtually impossible to move or buy a property, how can the London Assembly help with simplifying the investigation and resolving the present situation of not being able to sell or buy.

What is going to happen to young people who want to move out but can't due to the house prices? The so called affordable housing is not affordable to graduates who are working in London what are you going to do about the situation. People are moving out because they cannot afford it

The information above says: "The Mayor is responsible for: building high quality homes for Londoners..."

One example: a proposed 'Pocket Living' development of 105 homes on Ossory Road in Southwark. 102 of those homes will have no "private outdoor amenity space". As an architect I would describe such a development as low quality homes, not high quality homes. 

Q.1: Especially in the light of Covid and Work-From-Home, do you regard it as acceptable in London that hundreds if not thousands of new homes are being built without any private outdoor amenity space?

Q.2: Many thousands of existing homes have no private outdoor amenity space. Do you regard that as acceptable? Should the planning rules not be changed to encourage, rather than discourage balconies and roof terraces, where possible?

Q.3: Do you regard 'Studio' flats as high quality homes? As an architect I believe no new Studio flats should be built, except for students, because I think they should be categorised as low quality homes.

Thank you.

Newham Council have housed their homeless in hotels. Good for them. In light of the government's initiative to 'retrain' people, could not the homeless be given training in the building industry that they might help build suitable housing for themselves that they may have a vested interest in? This would serve to give them employment, training and may restore some unused / unoccupied buildings to suitable accommodation. There must be plenty of experienced builders (perhaps retired) that could be pressed into training new recruits

 Get London moving! 

Ladies & Gentlemen,
It is estimated that if all unoccupied properties in the UK were brought back into beneficial occupation, they would meet 70% of the Housing need.
Therefore, it would NOT be necessary for The Mayor and Local Councils in London to build ugly, unwanted tall buildings, in pleasant suburbs against the wishes of local residents. The London Borough of Waltham Forest and the suburb of Chingford are a case in point, residents feel VERY strongly about this issue and over 4,000 have signed a petition to prevent the Assembly Hall & Library becoming at least a 6 storey building with 46 housing units above a community hub (in a CONSERVATION AREA!!) , with more signing every day.

What actions are the Mayor and Assembly taking to ensure that ALL empty properties become occupied before planning permission is given for any more large scale inappropriate developments?

MY QUESTION

I would like to know why, when public land is up for sale, it is not your policy to keep the land in the public domain, but rather you prefer to sell it off to developers and housing associations, neither of which are public bodies or publicly accountable.  

Although there is at least one site in Waltham Forest where you sold public land to developers, the site I have in mind is the former Holloway Prison site in Islington, a borough with 14,000 households on the housing waiting list in addition to many others in overcrowded, overpriced and/or insanitary conditions.  Yet instead of buying the site to enable it to contain a majority of desperately-needed council homes for the borough, you have made a loan to Peabody Housing Association, who in addition to auctioning  / selling off each month numerous street properties containing urgently-needed homes for social rent throughout London, including Islington, prefer to build homes to sell, for shared ownership or at the London Living Rent - all for households on much higher incomes than those living in council homes. 

You are aware that the Housing & Planning Act of 2016 takes away any public accountability or responability from housing associations;  their purpose is no longer to serve those in most housing need. 

To make matters worse, on the Holloway Prison site, Peabody (2019 profits:  £148m; turnover £565m) have reneged on their undertaking to the Islington Council provide 42% homes for social(=council) rent and now want to supply 35%. Why wasn't the 42% a commitment included in the terms of the £42m loan you made them?  

You are failing those in desperate need of council homes in the capital.  Shame on you!

Will you explicitly turn the Mayoral Election into a referendum on the draft London Plan which Minister Jenrick has prevented from being published and does not accept as it stands?

Will the mayor commit to improving and substantially increasing the council housing stock levels in particular those for people with medical / disability needs. there is a distinct lack of these properties for people in need, and tower blocks etc are not the answer for those people as they frequently need space to park and for mobility scooters etc which they are not permitted to keep inside blocks as they obstruct emergency exits.

Why does the Mayor still approve huge developments, rather than heeding the climate emergency and stop roads and concrete blocks of development.  Instead, why does the Mayor not mandate developers to install parks and ponds into developments for that the South-East, by 2040 (20 years), is predicted to be drought-ridden.  In 1990, London had 6million inhabitants.  In 2020, there are 10 million.  This is entirely unsustainable. A way must be found to stem the unsustainable growth.

Homeless people were given accommodation at the start of the Pandemic, but I gather they have now been thrown out again. About a year ago I saw that the Mayor claimed he would end homelessness in the capital within twelve (I think he said) months. So what is going on?