Urban sustainability must not forget social issues such as housing justice

The debate about #urban #sustainability often focuses on environmental issues. But falling school rolls and a dire shortage of #affordable housing in cities such as London are ringing alarms bells that the city will soon be socially #unsustainable.

There is something worrying going on with London’s population especially in the inner-city boroughs. This is not new news, as many government agencies, councils and the media have been tracking it. But there has been little discussion about how this affects the city’s sustainability as a functioning economic social and cultural unit.

A report by London Councils, which represents the capital’s boroughs, summarised the extent of the issue in January. It said London boroughs were forecasting a drop in demand of 7,904 places across reception and Year 7 — the primary school period — between 2023/24 and 2027/28

In particular, it forecast a drop of 3,864 children to fill reception classes (the first year of primary school), which it said was roughly equivalent to a drop of 128 reception classes. This creates a financial challenge for a council as a reduction in pupils is having an impact on the amount of funding it receives, forcing it to make harsh decisions such as reducing staff numbers, ending extra services or even deciding to close or merge schools. Local newspapers in London are full of stories about school mergers.

But this is not a blog about education issues; it is relevant because of the concern it raises about a shrinking workforce. The state system has traditionally provided many key workers such as nurses teachers and public transport drivers.  Workers are already commuting increasingly long distances but, at some point, employers will find that unsustainable. This will apply to migrant workers who will increasingly take on this roles.

These demographic and economic trends have been in place for some time so it is unlikely that a change of political control will change much in the short term. And even if city leaders wanted to start their policy initiatives tomorrow, the system of local government in the UK leaves them with little power or resource.

Affordable homes

So change would be have to be achieved over the long term. What would its ingredients be? The first is to invest in the construction of more homes, and particularly ones prices at an affordable level.

But the countryside outside cities like London is protected by a Green Belt. We can create more homes but building upwards, but that is expensive. The logical step is to relax restrictions on the Green Belt and allow for densification around the existing transport stations in the Green Belt. The relaxation should also include handing over land that is in the belt but is industrial wasteland.

The second is to use the tax system to extract more of the value that accrues when land is handed over for residential development. If councils could levy a property tax that would enable them to fund local services such as transport and education.

Third, we could replace the current development control system that requires any change of use to be granted planning permission with one that sets out the types of development allowed in a certain area — and reduces the need for planning decisions to be made, and therefore room for opposition to grow. There are other ideas such as imposing private sector rent controls and ending the right to buy council homes, but both would likely become time-consuming political football matches.

But in the immediate term there are signs of hope. The London Community Land Trust last year opened Citizens House, an 11-home, genuinely and permanently affordable housing project in Sydenham, Lewisham, south London — its first. After years of campaigning, the Mayor of London told Lewisham council to work with the CLT to find unused land. The family homes built on that sliver of land cost £215,000 and £272,500, far below the open market rates.

On the edge of the North Circular road, a 0.58 hectare plot owned by Transport for London was developed as part of the Mayor of London’s Small Sites, Small Builders programme. The eye-catching development, Edgewood Mews, designed by award-winning architect Peter Barber, now hosts more than 100 homes of which more than half are affordable.

But these are drops in the ocean. A radical reform of the urban housing market will be needed eventually, and hopefully before cities like London turn into childless deserts.