Red Brick

By Nicky Gavron AM
Nicky is Labour Housing and Planning Spokesperson on the London Assembly.  She is on the Executive Committee of Labour Housing Group and of London LHG.  She tweets @nickygavron
The economy is not flat-lining because of the planning system or because of Section 106 agreements for much needed affordable housing, it is flat-lining because of the lack of confidence and demand, caused by the government’s failing economic plan.

Last week’s lament that Red Brick would have fewer things to talk about now that Grant Shapps has moved from the Housing job to become Tory Party Chairman is proving to be wrong. First because the new team of Mark Prisk and Nick Boles may be more interesting than we thought – Boles in particular started by making a complete tit of himself as the new Planning Minister trying to explain away his comment that he preferred chaos to planning  – more about them in the coming weeks.  And secondly because Grant Shapps seems determined to continue to grab our attention.

After our post earlier today called ‘Plan A on its deathbed’, it was nice of the Government to get around eventually to issuing statements about its new housing package, putting a little flesh on the bones after the confusion sowed by the Prime and Deputy Prime Minister as they toured the studios early this morning promising manna from heaven.

Oh no I’m missing Grant Shapps already.  Instead of the great (mis)communicator we have had to rely this morning on Nick Clegg to tell us about the Government’s latest housing announcement.  So he managed to tell us on BBC Breakfast that the right to build an extension without planning permission will be increased from 3 metres to ‘more than 3 metres’.  Great.  Cameron was equally unintelligible on ITV’s Daybreak muttering something indecipherable about council houses, as if he knew what one was.

What will we do without Grant Shapps to talk about? His promotion to Tory Party Chairman means the housing world is free of him at last.  Regrettably, in his new role the great British public will be seeing more not less of him. His promotion is a prize for failure and a reward for spin.

No-one who watches TV News could have missed the intrepid Housing and Immigration Ministers in Ealing going on raids of ‘beds in sheds’, outbuildings being used illegally as accommodation.
On the same day they published guidance on dealing with rogue landlords.
The issue of rogue landlords is a serious one that we have drawn attention to on many occasions.  ‘Beds in Sheds’ is just one manifestation of the problem of landlords exploiting poor and vulnerable people by providing substandard or hazardous accommodation. 

By Cllr Marc Francis, Tower Hamlets Labour Party
Nowhere did the last Labour Government’s stock transfer policy arouse more controversy than in Tower Hamlets.  The East End is the birth place of council housing and tenants understandably have a strong emotional attachment to it.  Many of the individual estate transfer ballots were won, but others were lost.  And in 2007, Labour councillors decided to set up an Arms Length Management Organisation for our remaining estates.

A reported sighting of a new house being built in Essex set off a frenzied search, a torrent of rumours, and a string of features on the BBC news.
Photoshopped pictures that have been traced back to the Campaign for the Protection of Rich bits of England caused panic across the Shires as millions of people began to believe that new houses were popping up in almost every field.

When Grant Shapps comments that a new report is the ‘blueprint’ for the future it should raise suspicions.  And when the Telegraph reports that the Housing Minister has said that rules forcing property developments to include cheap housing for the poor should be relaxed, it should raise hackles as well.
Sir Adrian Montague’s review of the barriers to institutional investment in private rented homes, published yesterday, highlights the potential for large scale build-to-let developments.