Letter on Brent Council's housing policy

Philip Grant, Kingsbury, full address supplied, writes:

It’s good news that Brent is getting at least £65m from the mayor of London to build new council housing. Will it spend the money wisely?

Brent urgently needs many new homes for people on its housing waiting list. Last year, the Poverty Commission report found that a third of households in the borough live below the poverty line, when housing costs are taken into account. Brent’s cabinet accepted its recommendations, including that it should build more social rented homes.

It has the chance to do this with its Wembley Housing Zone development, on land the council owns. But at last month’s cabinet meeting, they voted that only 50 per cent of these new homes will be “affordable”, and to appoint a developer to sell or rent the others.

Residents from Kilburn Square and neighbouring streets, launched a petition against the development of Kilburn Square in July (Image: Bill David)

On the empty former Copland School site, which has had full planning permission for 250 homes since February, they decided that only 39pc would be “affordable”. Just 52 of these would be rented at London Affordable Rent levels (which are higher than social rents), with the balance for shared ownership or at intermediate rent (too high for most!).

There would be a further 54 council flats for rent (but only eight of them three-bedroom) at the site opposite, where the Ujima House office block needs to be demolished before building can begin.
That makes up the 50pc “affordable” target, but there will only be 106 of the total 304 homes for rent as council homes. Surely it would make more sense to use some of the GLA money to make ALL these Wembley homes council housing, rather than letting a developer profit from half of them?

While giving away a possible extra 198 affordable homes in Wembley, the council seems intent on pushing through its scheme for 178 new homes, squeezed onto its existing Kilburn Square estate. That ill-considered project is rightly opposed by local residents, and any new homes there would take years longer to deliver than those at the Copland site.

Will Brent, and its cabinet, think again (or even think sensibly about its new council housing plans)?