Sadiq Khan discusses St Ann's Hospital site during Mayor's Questions 18/7/2019

Commenting on the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan's latest public statement on housing on the St. Ann's site in Haringey, David King, Director at St. Ann's Redevelopment Trust said:

'Today the Mayor was keen to underline how far the site plans had moved, from an original planning permission of just 14% affordable housing, to one of 50%. While StART have always welcomed this, we note that 50% is now the minimum requirement on public land under new planning policy, and still not in line with the community's vision. The plans also include shared ownership, which we oppose because we know it isn't affordable to the vast majority of Tottenham residents. 

We are particularly concerned about how much input the community will have in the process going forward, once the site goes out to tender and is acquired by a developer. We believe the plans for the site should be genuinely community-led, and be ambitious in pushing for as many homes to be at social rent as possible.'

At Mayoral Question Time today (44mins), London Assembly Member Sian Berry asked Sadiq Khan how the upcoming housing development at St Ann’s Hospital in Haringey would be an ‘exemplar’ and not just ‘business as usual’. 

He said that 'the role of StART will be critical to delivering the community-led homes and we hope there will be opportunities to go even further in delivering more affordable housing once a partner's in place.'

Sian Berry highlighted the differences between StART's vision for the scheme - with at least 65% genuinely affordable homes, with community control - and the Mayor's plans, which calls for 50% affordable with 50 homes held under a community land trust. She questioned whether this could really be called an 'exemplar', and urged the Mayor to meet with members of StART before the site goes out to tender. 

StART is pleased that the Mayor says he will seek to go further than current plans, but we need concrete measures to make this a reality. We hope that his intervention will give us a development we can all support, and we will continue to push for a site that will provide homes that will start to genuinely tackle the housing crisis in Haringey.

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