Boris Johnson rejects Prince Charles's answer to housing crisis in London
03-30-2014
Conflict: Prince Charles and Boris Johnson
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor
Prince Charles’s vision of more “mid-rise” mansion blocks and Victorian-style streets and squares to help solve London’s housing crisis was roundly rejected by Boris Johnson today.
The Mayor said it would be “absolutely crazy” to rule out building more towers, as the heir to the throne had suggested, when they could help accomodate the capital’s booming population.
The Prince made a dramatic intervention earlier this week with a warning that soaring prices would drive a generation of young people out of the capital. He said buildings of between five and eight storeys are more in keeping with London’s traditions than soaring skyscrapers.
But ahead of the launch of his own housing strategy, Mr Johnson said: “Everybody in an ideal world would like to see just loads of London terraced streets and squares but it is possible on many sites to build good, sensible high rise accommodation, beautiful homes with transport links, [it would be] absolutely crazy to rule out high rise in those cases.
“You cannot simultaneously call for more homes for young people, which is what we need, and then attack really good higher developments.”
He added: “The Prince has done a fantastic job in promoting traditional architecture over the years but in a city like London, growing to 10 million people in 2030, we have high public transport levels around transport hubs, take Stratford for instance.
“It would be really mad to build homes just three or four storeys high. We can do beautiful things and there is a huge demand to fill.
The Prince had said the dream of home ownership was “simply becoming further and further out of reach” when he launched his report on the capital’s future housing needs.
It called for fewer high-rise apartment blocks for the wealthy and more “human-scaled streets, squares and parks” available to a greater mix of people.
Latest figures today from the Land Registry today showed average property prices in the capital rose 13.8 per cent to £414,356 in the year to February.
In his updated housing strategy, launched today, Mr Johnson outlined key measures to tackle London’s housing crisis, including:
+ doubling the amount of house-building to at least 42,000 new homes a year. Of these at least 17,000 would be affordable and 5,000 purpose-built for long-term market rent. After falling for several years, the number of households placed in temporary accommodation by councils is growing, up 14 per cent in the last three years.
+ promoting purpose-built accommodation in town centre developments for the elderly who need easier access to community facilities such as post offices and doctors surgeries. The new homes would enable older people to downsize, freeing up much-needed larger homes for families. The Mayor will lobby Government for tax incentives, such as discounted stamp duty.
+ supporting London’s 1.5 million leaseholders who face rising service charges - averaging between £1,800 and £2,000 a year - and lobbying for greater legal protection against unfair charges as well as making it easier for leaseholders to apply for control of freeholds.
+ bidding for a more strategic role on surplus public land owned by government agencies and departments such as the NHS and MoD to provide land for development. The Mayor will have an “exit strategy” for all City Hall land, 85 per cent of which has already been sold or is on the market, by the end of his second term in 2016.
+ at least three new garden suburbs to be built on brownfield land after the Mayor’s advisors said there was “no intention and no need” to develop greenfield sites. Up to ten new housing zones will be launched to accelerate housebuilding in popular areas.
+ helping younger Londoners by bringing in tailored housing for first-time buyers including purpose-built graduate subsidised housing, new types of shared housing and erecting temporary housing units on land that is earmarked for permanent development. A new London rental standard will be brought in this summer but critics will argue that it’s too little, too late.
City Hall insists the Mayor is on track to deliver his pledge to build 100,000 new affordable homes by the end of his term, with 70,000 built so far, though the figures have been disputed.
Mr Johnson has denied there is a damaging housing bubble in the capital as suggested by Robert Chote, the Treasury’s chief watchdog, who said there were some “bubbly components” in the market.
His deputy mayor for housing, Richard Blakeway, said the London market could not be characterised as a whole but that he was conscious of the problem that existed in some areas.
“The only solution to address these issues, which are long-standing issues, is to go back to house-building on levels we’ve not seen in the 1930s,” he said.