The GLA have imposed on all London Boroughs housing targets. In the London Plan 2021 the housing target for the Borough of Bromley was for 774 homes to be built per annum. This target in part has driven the larger scale planning applications as evidenced by the Areli application and the Hadley planning application in Penge amongst others proposed for central Bromley.
Areli’s former planning application consisted of 990 flats predominantly one and two bedroom units with very, very few three bedroom units. Their target buyer being young professionals working in London. The concern is how does this target audience address the housing need of people residing in and around Orpington? Does this meet the needs of young families with children or older people downsizing?
Areli’s previous planning application did not include an appropriate number of affordable/ social housing provision. Their offer was so inadequate that the GLA published a report stating that they could not agree the planning application as it stood.
The government defines affordable housing as “social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market”.
Shared ownership is another affordable scheme where people part buy, part rent. This scheme is aimed at first time buyers who cannot afford to buy a property on the open market. Under the scheme you can buy at least a 25% share in a home and pay a regulated rent to the freeholder on the remaining share.
In a press release in November 2021 the Mayor of London confirmed that housing developments referred to the GLA had seen a significant increase in affordable housing.
Mayor- Affordable Housing Increase.
A further concern is that the Council does not know how many homes have been built within the Borough and therefore are under reporting the homes built. A record was completed of houses just constructed/ under construction/ planning permission granted within walking distance of Orpington High St in May 2022 and this amounted to 440 units. When Bromley was asked how many new homes had been built in different wards over the past year they were unable to provide this information as they do not record it. Bromley have no records of how many houses are being built in different areas of the Borough. This means that the housing quota may not be being fairly distributed throughout the Borough but concentrated in areas like Orpington.
In the future any housing development proposed for Orpington Town Centre should include social and affordable housing at the requisite rates
It is also appears evident that Bromley are looking to meet their housing targets through tower blocks with further high rise living proposed for Penge.
Andrew Boff of the GLA wrote to Councillors in Sept 2021 regarding housing typologies investigation findings which highlighted the disadvantages of building high rise, high density housing and the negative impact this type of housing had on residents in terms of their mental health and general well being. Below are some quotes from that letter.
“The key finding is that the Committee does not believe that tall buildings are the answer to London’s housing needs and should not be encouraged outside of a few designated and carefully managed areas.”
Andrew Boff
“The higher off the ground, the less comfortable [you are] in terms of your living environment and your happiness with your neighbourhood.”
Andrew Boff
“Tall buildings will not produce the high-quality homes and neighbourhoods that London needs…in general families are disadvantaged if they are living in tall buildings. The sociability that children are able to gain in terms of opportunities for play, for meeting others and so forth within tall buildings is often not great.”
“High density housing can be achieved by approaches that are more suitable for families, more in keeping with London’s traditional form, and are less intrusive on the skyline.”
Andrew Boff
“Serving tall buildings can be costly and this often results in high service charges to residents [and] energy use is higher in tall buildings.”
His full letter can be found in the link below.
https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/letter_to_councillors_-_housing_typologies_1.pdf