Berry keeps social housing at the top of the agenda

Portrait: Tom Campbell Remember Sian Berry? She was the Green Party candidate who ran for London mayor last year. She didn’t win, obviously. But she managed a respectable third place and was elected to the London Assembly, where she is now helping to hold mayor Sadiq Khan and his administration to account. Back when the race for the top post was on, she made a name for herself campaigning on issues that could, quite easily, have been dismissed as being peripheral. But from renters’ rights to an end to estate demolition, and from massive public sector building to more social responsibility, everything Berry stood for – and still stands for – has shot up the political agenda. Societal issues now scream for attention in London and the wider UK.  The Grenfell Tower tragedy, estate regeneration failures, the affordability crisis, the “us and them” division of politics, the surge of “real” Labour, and the desire for development driven by what people want and not by profits – all of the rhetoric on which Berry built her campaign is being taken more seriously than ever.  And that pressure needs to be kept up, she says. “I’m a campaigner – you don’t just go and ask once and they say no and well, that’s done then. You campaign.” For or against Khan? Sitting in her poky office at City Hall – her team of three outside – Berry is refreshingly open and friendly. Mainly because she does not employ the political trick of deflecting questions or answering different ones to those asked. This only enhances her passion when it comes to the issues being discussed. Her raison d’etre is simple. “The supply of social housing genuinely needs to increase and people can see that,” she says.  “London really benefits from having a mixed community, people from different strata and classes all living in the same area, and people do really value that.” This year Berry will take an even more active role in the issues, as she has taken the chair of the housing committee – the body that critiques Khan’s housing policy. Berry was, of course, not alone in campaigning for an increase in affordable housing: Khan promised to increase it to 50%. However, her policies and campaigning have arguably shown a deeper commitment to and understanding of the housing crisis and the issues that are facing the city. “You will have seen the lack of detail with which Sadiq engaged with the housing debate during the election. He did not turn up to the [built environment] hustings,” she says. We have essentially ground to a halt and Sadiq has got a hell of a lot of work to do in terms of getting it back in gear.” “We [Berry and Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate] described in detail what we would do and why. Whereas Sadiq said things like ‘first dibs’. We still don’t really know what first dibs means…” Now, while she agrees with what he is doing, she thinks progress is too slow.  “The new definitions of what is affordable and what isn’t, the long-term measures, and the reforms he is putting in are going to make a difference,” she says. “My concern is we are not getting anywhere in terms of solving the crisis – if we were making progress and it was slow that would be great, but we have essentially ground to a halt and Sadiq has got a hell of a lot of work to do in terms of getting it back in gear.” She points out new research showing that social rented housing starts in the year to June were zero. EG’s own research has shown that while Khan’s policies are leading to a small increase in the percentage of affordable housing, it is nowhere near the 50% promised in his campaign. One of the first statements City Hall put out after his election was that affordable housing provision is “a marathon, not a sprint”. While Berry accepts it takes time for policies and their effects to work through, she says there is more he could be doing in the shorter term – helping the plight of renters through landlord controls, for instance. Easy to criticise It’s easy to criticise, but what would Berry do differently? What does she think would help? “Lots of small things, this is the Green way – we are smaller, grass roots. You get speed out of that as each one of the people doing that project wants to live in them afterwards,” she says. “I would focus more on the co-op sector, which wants to expand, and is not fettered. You have got to mobilise every part of the housing market.” Alternative methods would not add much to housing totals, but would show a willingness to think outside the box – something Berry believes is missing from the debate. “I have definitely noticed a reluctance to speak with and hear new ideas from all the people out there in the communities.” Berry wants more money given to councils to build housing, not just the housing associations that Khan has focused on. She points out that L&Q was given £400m from the latest mayoral grant, while all the councils put together received just £148m. She says Khan should be lobbying government consistently for more devolution powers and funding. In particular, she cites Khan’s failure to follow up more forcefully on rent controls (caps) in the private rented sector. Taking control Berry still thinks rent controls are necessary, alongside better regulation in the market. “I think rent controls are something that some cities are going to have to try to do. Somebody could get elected by wanting to do something about it.” What she really wants is to take the profit out of the housing market. “The focus on foreign buyers is a slight red herring, it is property as an investment that’s the problem,” she says. “All those groups of people are not people we should be catering to. It’s people that want to buy homes to live in them, for their lives, and not necessarily as an investment to pass onto their children.” It makes no sense for nobody to live in the centre of town. If people cannot afford to live in the centre of London, then central London will break.” She laughs incredulously at the suggestion that taking the profit out of the housing market could hit people’s savings and pensions. “I don’t think anything we could conceivably do, through the measures I am talking about, whether that’s rent control or more new builds in the non-profit sector, is going to take so much heat out of the market that people are going to start losing money, frankly. “I am not saying people who already bought their homes would end up in negative equity. What we might be saying is make speculation on homes less attractive… we all want that.” Social justice None of what Berry proposed in her manifesto, or is proposing now, is radical. Perhaps it is more of an indictment of the state of London’s housing market that it could ever have been thought to be. The fact that someone has to campaign for clean, safe, long-term and secure places to live for everyone in one of the richest cities in the world is arguably evidence of that. Berry likens the need for a 20% margin for property developers to that of venture capitalists, and says they – and the models for housing provision – have to be more long term. If there is not some change, she says, more and more people will leave London, or live on its outskirts, and the city will suffer. “It makes no sense for nobody to live in the centre of town. If people cannot afford to live in the centre of London, then central London will break.” “That’s why the focus is on social housing. That’s the bit that’s missing, that is being underprovided the most.” So Berry will be aiming to make sure social housing remains the centre of the debate at City Hall. To send feedback, e-mail alex.peace@egi.co.uk or tweet @egalexpeace or @estatesgazette This article was originally published on 23rd August 2017