West End letters: Planning laws | Cllr Guthrie McKie | Chelsea Barracks

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 18 September 2009

Planning laws are not the problem

YOU quote Westminster City Council as saying that a radical change to planning laws will help the council build more homes (Relax planning laws to tackle overcrowding crisis in housing, September 11).
The problem is not the planning laws themselves but the inability (unwillingness) of the local authority to use them in a way that prioritises the building of affordable and social housing. The obvious example of this is the, soon-to-be-vacant, site in North Wharf Road next to the Paddington Basin.
The city council owns that site freehold.
It could choose to transfer the site to a housing agency on a long lease. This would enable that agency to raise money for house-building for people in need. However, the council in its insatiable appetite to sell off everything it owns, decided to sell the site to the highest bidder. It wasn’t planning laws that made them make that decision. It is a clear and brutal policy that does not see those in severe housing need as a priority.
The other example will be the Chelsea Barracks site which is due for development.
It would normally require 50 per cent of the homes that are built to be affordable and for social renting. One residents’ group has urged the council to reduce the level of social rented housing required under the planning regulations. Will the council put the interest of those in severe housing need before the interest of a few well-heeled residents in Chelsea? You can guess what the answer will be.
Cllr Guthrie McKie
Labour Spokesperson for Housing

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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