I was interested to read a London Green perspective on the proposed abolition of Haringey's regeneration programme. I don't know the details of the Haringey deal (which for all I know may not be a good one), but the Green article seems to indicate how they just don't even begin to comprehend the nature of the issues involved.
Firstly, they seem to think that you just declare what you want and some one gives it to you. In real life you negotiate a deal. That is, you offer something and the other party offers something in return. In the case of regeneration projects that generally means a Council selling land, a property developer putting in capital to develop the land, and some mixture of social uses (affordable housing, social infrastructure) and property for sale to pay for it. The biggest change to this picture in recent years is that the Tories have cut capital grants to make this all happen and to help deliver more of the social housing that Tory ministers claim they suddenly in favour of.
The Haringey case seems to have run up against another problem, the rule of law. Once you enter into a contract you are bound by it. This is fundamental to how our society works. The developer (Lendlease) seem to be believe that they have gone past that point. If they are right, the Council's options are (a) break the contract and probably be sued, costing a huge amount of money (b) Negotiate itself out of the contract which would entail some compensation and reputational damage (c) Decide it is better to press ahead with the deal its got and hold the developer to account to deliver it as closely as possible.
The fact that the Greens just appear not to understand the basics of how things work suggests that they really aren't fit to provide any kind of constructive opposition to them.
The result of the Green approach may well be a drying up of new house building of any kind which is the last thing either the economy or society needs.
1 comment:
You ignore the fact that all the residents affected didn't want HDV, and with good reason. Out about 700 housing units, only 1000 were to be at 'affordable' rent, which is double the rate of 'social housing' the rest at market rates for sale or rent.
Where are these people meant to live? You just don't care about that though. Frankly, it is better to do nothing than proceed with HDV. It will cost about half million pounds to pay off Lendlease, but Kober and her Cabinet should be surcharged for this.
The new council are looking at other plans, which may turn out to be modest, but in the interest of Haringey residents.
Post a Comment