Response to the Draft London Plan by Benali Hamdache AM

Being a London politician means being confronted with a constant chorus of housing horror stories. There is simply no London community or neighbourhood untouched by the runaway financialisation of housing in our city. 

North, East, South and West. Council tenants to private renters. Homeowners concerned for their children. Children worried about their pensioner parents. Everyone knows someone hit by the extortionate price of living in this city. And as a private renter of over a decade here I know it personally.

The London Plan will be a leading part of how we respond to this emergency. It is the Mayor’s second opportunity to set a plan and deliver the social housing our city so urgently needs. His previous plan was in some ways an improvement on what came before, but ultimately failed. We are at risk of this attempt failing to deliver too. 

Unlike last time, the Mayor’s party is now also in control of central Government. This should be an unprecedented opportunity to reshape our approach to housing. To roll back the poisonous legacy of selling out of the city to developers. 

This plan does not do that. Instead, it continues the same developer-led model and super charges it. It is weaker on affordable housing at a time when need has never been higher, while proposing we chew up lots of land to build expensive flats in new luxury towers. 

This approach has never worked, and in this challenging environment with high costs and falling demand for market housing, will continue to not work. Building for commercial viability and not need will come with a huge, unnecessary costs, for our communities and the planet. 

I am inspired by the community crowdsourced alternatives for a London plan that focus on the needs of Londoners above all. Just Space’s alternative London Plan for a caring city, built by London’s grassroots community model, should be an inspiration. It is a document shaped by far more community consultation than the London Plan. My recommendations will mirror many made by the experienced and knowledgeable community groups at the cliff edge, confronting this housing crisis head on. 

Campaigning groups have also shared their views of the draft London Plan, particularly around transport, which have been used to inform my response as well. The weakening of the provision of for free, fully accessible, inclusive, toilets available 24 hours a day, is a case in point and a real failure of the draft London Plan. While Disabled people’s organisations have raised concerns that accessibility, inclusion and wheeling are not fully recognised within the policy framework.

Similarly, the lack of reference in the draft London Plan to the targets in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) is a big oversight, particularly given the modelling evidence that has been used, which predicts a 10 per cent increase in highways trips by 2036. The new London Plan should respond to this forecast and strengthen its policies to encourage sustainable travel modes and reduce private car use.

Surely it also time for the Mayor to produce new Transport and Environmental Strategies, both statutory documents. The new London Plan will run to 2046, as opposed to 2041 for the current MTS, while the implementation plan for his Environment Strategy only goes up as far as 2023. Nor do these strategies refer to the Mayor’s goal for London to be Net Zero by 2030, which should strongly inform the actions within them. 

My response to this plan is informed by the work of not only the many NGOS, charities and interest groups I have engaged with, but also by the work of colleagues at the London Assembly,

It is by no means an exhaustive critique of the Plan but reflects key areas that residents and experts have said to me are some of the key areas of concern. 

My headline recommendations to the Mayor are:

• set binding strategic targets for social housing delivery across London, allocated by borough;

• revisit the fragile evidence base on the need for one and two-bed market rate homes, at a time when the market is collapsing;

• reinstate affordable housing targets in sites of all types and sizes, and set stronger policies on accessible affordable housing;

• be cautious of embracing the private build to rent model, which risks simply fuelling the runaway financialisation of housing;

• provide genuine protections for Londoners against displacement of all kinds and concrete mechanisms for communities to influence the planning process;

• ensure accessibility, sustainability and safety are at the heart of all transport and infrastructure planning;

• do not let environmental standards be traded away in pursuit of growth and viability, the Draft Plan fails to set ambitious enough standards on carbon, water and energy generation;

• explicitly refer to his Transport Strategy, accessibility for Disabled people and reinstate the existing policy for public toilets.

Read the rest of my response for further details.