Does Sadiq Khan understand the meaning of "Genuinely Affordable Housing"?

'StART', St Ann's Redevelopment Trust, calls on the GLA to rule out "Shared Ownership" on the Mayor’s flagship housing site.

The GLA refuse to rule out "London Shared Ownership" at the St Ann's Site, to the frustration and dismay of the local community. "Shared Ownership" has proven to be unaffordable to a vast majority of local residents in Haringey, 48% of which have no savings. GLA attempts at affordable housing would lead to exclusion via gentrification.

The GLA is set to sell the St. Ann's Hospital housing development site in Tottenham, recently purchased as part of the Mayor’s plan to use public funds in tackling the Capital’s housing crisis and provide affordable homes. But, out of the 50% earmarked as affordable homes, only a fraction of them will be genuinely affordable to local residents.

On a site that could see up to 800 new homes built in Tottenham, North London, the GLA has promised to ensure that any private contractor must build affordable housing as part of the deal. Local residents welcomed the move and in July 2018, local community campaign group, St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust (StART), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the GLA, giving the community a seat at the table in decisions about the St Ann’s Hospital development. However, StART believes the inclusion of "Shared Ownership" undermines the prospect of genuinely affordable homes in Tottenham.

“Genuinely affordable” is generally agreed to mean 1/3rd of the local gross household income. For large parts of Haringey and other parts of London this means a rental/mortgage level no higher than about £950 a month for a two-bedroom home. Recent shared ownership homes near to the St Ann’s site have gone on the market with the rent/mortgage at around £1,600.

The average income in Tottenham is nowhere near that level. Haringey Council states, “of all Inner London boroughs, Haringey has the largest proportion that are earning below the London Living wage (32%)”.

A recent Freedom Of Information request revealed 48% of Haringey residents have no savings or are in debt and are therefore unable to afford the deposit required for "Shared Ownership"; this figure is higher among BAME communities. This means the inclusion of "Shared Ownership" as part of a housing development in an area like Tottenham has huge implications for Haringey’s diversity.

Tony Wood, a StART Director said: “Over the past few months the GLA has been dragging it’s heels in meeting with StART to discuss the concerns of the local community. We believe this is because the Mayor and the GLA seem unable to acknowledge the fact that for the majority of Londoners, "Shared Ownership" is simply not affordable, and they are planning to include "Shared Ownership" in the 50% of homes set aside as affordable housing on the St Ann’s site."

Wood said, “Genuinely affordable is a phrase we have heard often from Sadiq Khan, so why does the GLA want to reduce the number of genuinely affordable homes in Tottenham by including homes built for "Shared Ownership"? In our community, "Shared Ownership" is actually a vehicle for displacement, not a defence against it.”

About StART:
The St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust (StART) was formed by Haringey residents who want to ensure that the proposed housing developments on the former St Ann’s Hospital site provides as many desperately needed genuinely affordable homes for people in the local community as possible.

StART’s has a membership of over 450 residents and over 1000 registered local supporters. Its mandate comes from a series of community engagement events asking the people of Tottenham and the wider borough of Haringey what they wanted to see on the site, which led to a list of community demands that StART called it’s Shared Objectives.

Through StART consultation events the community has called for 100% of the homes built on the St Ann’s site to be genuinely affordable. Other aspects of StART’s Shared Objectives include questions over who controls the land; affordability in perpetuity (meaning that future generations continue to benefit from affordable homes on the site); and eradicating schemes like right-to-buy, buy-to-rent, and buy-to-leave from the development.

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