Ealing Council and its visionary leader, Julian Bell, have the ultimate ambition to socially cleanse the borough. None of the new housing we hear so much about us addressing the 10,000+ waiting list for social housing. No doubt the Stirling Road site already has plans drawn up for more rabbit hutch apartments.The ideal is to fill these places with young, well-heeled professionals. People who don’t require schools for their children. People in good health who don’t drain medical resources. People who are fit enough to get about on foot or by bike and need no car. People with high levels of disposable income who will frequent the pricey coffee shops and expensive boutiques earmarked for such developments (see Dickens Yard and Filmworks for reference).But where will all these thousands of new residents arrive from to fill these shiny new council tax farms? Nobody knows, not even the omnipotent Bell.Slowly, very slowly, it’s starting to dawn on some Labour councillors that maybe these schemes aren’t quite so attractive. The proposed redevelopment of Perceval House (including a 26 storey block of flats that would be the same height as the Statue of Liberty) was deferred by Ealing planning committee this week. A lack of social housing in the plan apparently....Ealing received a £99million grant from the Mayor to build affordable homes. It could have spent this on old fashioned council housing, as other boroughs have done, but instead chose to partner with big development companies to produce high end blocks of flats. The baseline for affordability is London Affordable Rent, which is well beyond the means of many most in need of housing. That discounted rent is only for up to five years, when it can revert to full market rates. Add in hidden costs like service charges and you soon see how many people are simply priced out of these new builds.In four years the council has delivered just 31 social housing units in the borough. Not quite the 2,500 we are constantly promised by Bell and his acolytes in the pages of Around Ealing magazine (public subsidy for which is around £100,000 a year).There is a need for housing, but not of this type. What they also overlook is the need for supporting infrastructure. Schools, surgeries, proper shops, and maybe even waste recycling facilities that aren’t on the other side of the borough.
Simon Hayes ● 2076d