CAMPAIGN: Lambeth Council to decide on social housing at Brixton Square development tonight

Lambeth councillors will tonight make a crucial decision over the provision of social housing at the Brixton Square development tonight.

As part of a joint campaign on the issue, Brixton Blog, Brixton Buzz and urban75 are urging as many people as possible to attend the meeting in Room 8 at Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, at 7pm.

The Brixton websites teamed up to campaign against the application by Barratt Homes to change the quota of social housing in the apartment blocks to ‘affordable’ housing at a percentage of the market rent.

However, the planning officer responsible has recommended that the alteration be approved. This would mean no social housing as previously promised and instead affordable housing with rents pegged to the market rate, which is rising in Brixton. It is now up to councillors at the planning meeting tonight. Although only three speakers are allowed to speak for and against the application, we urge all who want to retain social housing in the area to attend the meeting and make their feelings clear by their presence. It will take place at Room 8 in the Town Hall at 7pm.

This is what we wrote in collaboration with Brixton Buzz and urban75 last October:

Urban 75, Brixton Buzz and Brixton Blog are partnering to protest against Barratt Homes’ application to water down the provision of social and affordable housing, including the conversion to ‘affordable rent’ tenure of 13 social rent flats, at its new development ‘Brixton Square’, on Coldharbour Lane. Sign our petition here.

While a social rent would be fixed with a secure lifetime tenancy, an ‘affordable’ rent means the tenant would pay roughly 55% of the open market rent for the local area, which is liable to go up over time. As gentrification continues apace in Brixton and property prices rise, this will make it increasingly difficult for low income tenants to live in the town centre. Affordable tenancies are also likely to mean fixed term contracts (rather than longer-term security), after which the rent can be put up again. It is therefore extra important to conserve social rented properties at the heart of Brixton.

Lambeth, if it allows this variation, will set a precedent for other large schemes in central Brixton in the future. Lambeth Council is in danger of allowing the demographics of central Brixton to be changed by allowing a definition of affordability in Section 106 agreements that is not in fact affordable when compared to social rented property.

Permission was originally given to Places for People to build the ‘Brixton Square’ on the basis of having socially rented housing in 2005. Barratt Homes argue that the economic situation has changed so much it is now not possible to fulfill that promise. However, we note that Barratt Homes bought the site in the knowledge of the Section 106 agreement only last year (well after the 2008 crisis) and that in Brixton specifically the housing market is not deflating.

We also urge the council to ensure that the provider of the rented units is a registered social landlord, as is stated in the original Section 106. The Section 106 agreement should not be changed to widen this to include affordable housing providers, which are in effect private, for-profit landlords.

Developers like Barratt Homes claim that developments are less financially viable with social rented units included. Unlike developers, however, we are concerned more for our community than big profits, and we hope this is the case with Lambeth’s planners too.

Follow and contribute to discussions on the urban75 thread!