892 Home Southwark Development With Fewer than 1 in 5 Social Housing to be Decided On
892 Home Southwark Development With Fewer than 1 in 5 Social Housing to be Decided On
Berkeley Homes’ Borough Triangle Development, where Mercato Metropolitano is currently situated, is to come to Southwark’s planning committee on 26th March.
The development, which will have 892 flats, will only have 153 homes for social rent (around 17% of the total homes), along with another 77 so-called “affordable” intermediate options such as discount market rate and shared ownership.
Discount market rate usually refers to the price being set at 80% market rate – however, according to Rightmove data, the average price of a one-bedroom flat in SE1 (which includes SE1 6DR – Borough Triangle’s postcode) is around £659,782. The discounted, so-called “affordable” price would then be £527,000, representing 16x the average salary in Southwark, and would require a minimum deposit of at least £26,000 for a 5% mortgage.
The plans have drawn fierce opposition from local residents concerned about the use of the site for what they say are “luxury flats”, and broader attention from the Southwark Housing And Planning Emergency (SHAPE) coalition. Earlier in March, SHAPE marched from the controversial Aylesham development which recently dropped to providing just 12% affordable homes, to the Borough Triangle site. Cllr Victor Chamberlain addressed the 600-person crowd, where he slammed the Labour council for letting developers provide such little affordable housing.
More recently, the Canada Water masterplan hit headlines after it was revealed that the proportion of affordable housing could be slashed by more than a third to just 10%.
The Liberal Democrats, who have all three councillors in the Borough and Bankside ward, and two in neighbouring St George’s ward, have held three public meetings to sound the community out. They have maintained that whilst the site should be developed for housing, the level of affordable housing means that it is not acceptable.
To date, 411 comments have been submitted – 398 against, 10 in favour.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Victor Chamberlain, who also represents Borough and Bankside ward, said:
“Borough Triangle’s affordable housing provision is unacceptably low. When there are 2,853 families on the social housing waiting list in SE1 alone, to provide just 153 genuinely affordable homes is simply not good enough on such a big site.
Where our Labour council is more concerned about what developers can afford, Liberal Democrats care about what our communities can afford. Once again Labour council bosses are just rolling over for the big developers. Berkeley made a pre tax profit of £550million last year. Why are Labour bosses allowing them to make even more at the expense of homes local people can actually afford?
We have a housing emergency in Southwark, and developments like Borough Triangle will not do anything to end it and actually will make our area more unaffordable.”
The development borders St George’s ward, where residents say they will be impacted as well.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Graham Neale, representing St George’s Ward, added:
“Our residents are outraged at the proposals, which will do nothing to help local families stay in an area they are increasingly priced out of.
The impact on conservation areas like the Albert Triangle are also causing a lot of concern, and I hope that the planning committee see sense to send the developers back to the drawing board for a proposal that local communities can support”
Local resident Nina Wessel, who will lead for the “Save Borough Triangle” objectors at the meeting said:
"We are hundreds of residents coming together to resist this inappropriate, and mostly unaffordable, development. It will cause severe harm to local traders and architectural heritage, and the sheer scale of the 46 and 38 floor buildings will literally overshadow our community. The Save Borough Triangle group is proud to be leading calls on Wednesday for Berkeley Homes and Southwark Council to go back to the drawing board and propose a less harmful use of Borough Triangle, which benefits this community and which the residents can support ”