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Row over reduction of affordable housing on Wood Green development

16 November 2022
5 Min Read

Anger after Haringey Council intervened to raise social-rent quota on development at expense of total affordable housing level
By Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

The site of the proposed development in Mayes Road (credit Google)
The site of the proposed development in Mayes Road (credit Google)

Housing campaigners have criticised Haringey Council after its planning officers suggested a developer should reduce the total amount of affordable housing on a proposed scheme.

Haringey Defend Council Housing called for the scheme – which is being planned for the site of a former petrol station in Mayes Road, Wood Green – to be rejected, claiming officers effectively briefed developer Weston Homes that council policies “may be evaded with impunity”.

Changes to the scheme proposed after officers suggested maximising social-rent units would, if approved, see the total affordable housing level fall significantly below the council’s target.

The council says the alterations focus on providing homes for those who are most in need as developers struggle to keep their schemes viable. But Haringey Defend Council Housing says a minimum of 50% of all proposed dwellings at this site should be council homes at social rent.

In his objection to the scheme, campaigner Paul Burnham said some of the council officers had “disregarded” its “good policies” on social-rent homes and had “effectively briefed the developer that council policies may be evaded with impunity”.

Haringey Council’s policies state that the authority “will seek the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing provision when negotiating on individual private residential and mixed-use schemes with site capacity to accommodate more than ten dwellings”. They also state that “subject to viability, sites capable of delivering ten units or more will be required to meet a borough-wide affordable housing target of 40%, based on habitable rooms”.

In 2021, developer Aitch Group won planning permission for 75 homes at the site in Mayes Road, including 15 for affordable rent and ten units for shared ownership, which allows people buy an initial share of a home and pay rent on the remaining section. The overall affordable housing level was 39.4% by habitable room.

Earlier this year, another developer, Weston Homes, applied to change the scheme, which is currently under construction, to build 88 flats, including 20 for affordable rent and eleven for shared ownership, with an overall level of affordable housing by habitable room of 39.5%.

But planning documents reveal council officers suggested that a proposal “which maximises the provision of solely affordable rent units, including a high provision of three-bedroom family units, would likely be preferable to a policy-compliant (40%) scheme including shared or DMS [discounted market sale] units”.

Following this, the proposals were changed to remove the shared-ownership units and provide 19 homes for affordable rent, with the overall number of homes provided reduced to 83. As a result, the total level of affordable housing by habitable room dropped to 29.6%.

Planning documents reveal officers confirmed “they would be supportive of the adjusted tenure distribution” and that they “supported the removal of any London Shared Ownership tenure units at the expense of the scheme being below policy for overall affordable housing but with a higher amount of affordable rented units”.

Hornsey and Wood Green MP Catherine West is among those who have submitted objections to the plans. The Labour MP wrote that although she welcomed the proposed increase in affordable rent units, she did not believe this “should come at the expense of the total affordable housing provision in this development”.

Responding to the concerns, Dana Carlin, the council’s cabinet member for housing services, private renters and planning, said: “We will continue to ensure maximum affordable housing is provided for our residents as promised in our manifesto. The current proposal increases social rented homes from 15 to 19 following advice to focus on providing affordable housing for those most in need.

“It is no secret that developers are currently facing a number of challenges to keep their projects or developments viable with soaring build costs and increasing interest rates. We therefore face a challenge to ensure housing and affordable housing continue to be built in Haringey.

“In this instance the planning application is still under consideration, and a final recommendation has not been reached. Further discussions will continue, shared ownership will be explored and affordable housing will be maximised.”

A spokesperson for Weston Homes said: “Weston Homes engaged in early pre-application discussions with the council following concerns about the deliverability of the site. Various options were presented to officers to resolve the issue and these included adding more dwellings and changing the affordable housing mix.

“As a result of these discussions, Weston Homes submitted a planning application to add eight dwellings and adjust the affordable housing mix to provide a greater quantum of social-rent homes. Compared to the original consent, the overall number of social-rent homes increased from 15 to 19, providing additional homes for those in greatest need.”

The proposed scheme can be viewed by visiting the council’s planning portal and entering reference HGY/2022/2452.

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