Southwark Planning...

One of those 'I don't believe it' moments:

"Delighted to have accepted the award as best planning authority for @lb_southwark at London Planning Awards 2017"

Peter John, are you sure they opened the right envelope?

Peter John promised in 2014 to build 11,000 new council (not so-called "affordable") homes by 2043.

This means that during this 29 year period, we should expect an average of 380 new council homes per year, so no less that 760 should have already been built if our planning award winning leader has been true to his word.

Does anyone here know if this figure of 760 has been met, and does anyone know how many existing council homes have been lost (to demolition, right-to-buy, etc) during the same period?

That's really quite astonishing. Who gets to vote for this 'London Planning Award' I wonder? If it were Southwark residents I suspect the award would have gone elsewhere!

I don't know the answer to Jules62's questions, but I'd be really interested to know if anyone else does. As far as my particular neighbourhood is concerned (Blackfriars Bridge end of Blackfriars Road), the only construction work in the last 10 years has been hotels, offices and, yes - you've guessed it - luxury flats.

suziq wrote:

That's really quite astonishing. Who gets to vote for this 'London Planning Award' I wonder? If it were Southwark residents I suspect the award would have gone elsewhere!
I don't know the answer to Jules62's questions, but I'd be really interested to know if anyone else does. As far as my particular neighbourhood is concerned (Blackfriars Bridge end of Blackfriars Road), the only construction work in the last 10 years has been hotels, offices and, yes - you've guessed it - luxury flats.

indeed - not to mention the 'decanting' or social cleansing as it's also know of social housing estates such as Heygate and Aylesbury estates whilst also flogging other assets such as half the site of the former caste leisure centre for I believe a mere £6 to lend fleece whom then built 284 flats on it...

I assume the developers were awarding this - because for them Southwark must be the best indeed as they always seem to get whatever they wish

A local take on these 'awards':

https://twitter.com/SouthwarkNotes/status/836887412299161600

Looks as though plenty of homes are being built, just not for Londoners
Take a look at this disturbing article about our bonkers property market

http://www.transparency.org.uk/faulty-towers/

Jules62 wrote:

Peter John promised in 2014 to build 11,000 new council (not so-called "affordable") homes by 2043.
This means that during this 29 year period, we should expect an average of 380 new council homes per year, so no less that 760 should have already been built if our planning award winning leader has been true to his word.

Does anyone here know if this figure of 760 has been met, and does anyone know how many existing council homes have been lost (to demolition, right-to-buy, etc) during the same period?

The news is in: by the end of 2018 Southwark will have only completed 400 new homes.

So much for Peter John's empty electoral promises...

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/9210

I'm going to be that picky person and point out that Planning and Housing are different departments and the failure to meet the council housing target is much more likely to be the fault of Housing not Planning (doesn't mean they deserve an award though).

Zoe wrote:

I'm going to be that picky person and point out that Planning and Housing are different departments and the failure to meet the council housing target is much more likely to be the fault of Housing not Planning (doesn't mean they deserve an award though).

As council leader, Peter John is responsible for the efficiency of all departments, including both Housing and Planning.

It is his job to ensure that they deliver his electoral promises and, clearly, he has failed to do so: a perfect example of a leader that is unable to lead.

It's not like he said: "we are going to build 11,000 new council homes in the borough, providing Housing and Planning pull their finger out in which case it's not my fault"...

I'm not disagreeing Jules, it's just that the failure to deliver housing is the responsibility of the housing department. Planning can only agree if schemes are brought before them. There is a slightly more complex relationship with regen, planning and housing, as regen/planning should try to identify sites, propose this to housing who develop the scheme, which would be agreed by planning. I'm not trying to defend Planning though, I'm simply being a pedant!