Southwark Council: we need the money to maintain momentum

Southwark Council’s head of sustainable growth has issued a blunt demand as the new government looks to prioritise a boost in the planning profession: “London will only deliver housing needed with a load of cash for Southwark. We don’t need the planners, we need the money.” Speaking on a panel at the London Property Alliance’s Southwark in Focus event, Neil Kirby was optimistic about the opportunities following this year’s local and national elections, but stressed the need for more money to address the biggest challenges. He said: “The commonality between the GLA and the assembly and government now is really helpful. I believe that chimes very well with our cabinet and our political direction, and they’re just champing at the bit ready to go.” The problem, he added, is attracting investment when the council is, in his words, “really bad at selling ourselves”. “The council has no money, broadly,” he said. “We’ve exhausted our housing programme. We’ve built 3,000 council homes. We’d like to build another 8,000-9,000. If anyone’s got any money, reach out.” One project he pointed to as an opportunity was the Bakerloo Line extension, which he said would continue to benefit Old Kent Road and continue Southwark Council’s regeneration of “opportunity areas”, such as the Peckham estates. Collaboration works Kirby and other panellists highlighted the council’s successful collaboration with British Land on a 53-acre Canada Water masterplan project. Southwark Council granted the project “flexible” planning permission, which establishes the parameters that buildings must be built within and leaves further specifics open to future determination. Latest developments at the scheme include British Land signing a memorandum of understanding with King’s College London to establish a science and innovation campus on the Canada Water site.  Emma Cariaga, co-head of Canada Water at British Land, praised the approach and said: “We can build as few as 2,000 homes or as many as 4,000. We can build as little as 500,000 sq ft of commercial space or as much as 2.5m sq ft. And that ability to slide up and down the scale of where we invest our energy and on what, I think, is a really good model.” Not everyone, however, was pleased with the direction of development in Southwark. Kirby was interrupted after making a joke that one of his favourite things about Southwark is that “it’s a ‘place’, you know, it’s not Croydon”. A member of the audience disputed the comment: “Hey man, leave Croydon alone. It’s a nice place. Some of us got priced out of Southwark into Croydon.” ‘The housing market is broken’ The panel later addressed the statement when the same audience member spoke about their experience of being priced out of Elephant and Castle and forced to live in Zone 5: “My commute since Covid is longer and more expensive because trains are less frequent and the prices have gone up. I’m trying to encourage my team to meet, to come in three days a week, but they’re telling me that they can’t afford to live in central London.” They added: “I don’t feel that you’ve fully addressed the fact that it is unappealing to commute into Southwark, Camden, Westminster for people who are starting their careers or even in the middle of their careers.” Both Kirby and Cariaga agreed housing and affordability in Southwark required greater attention and investment. Kirby acknowledged that “the housing market is broken” and pointed to a recent report led by the council, in collaboration with 19 other councils, highlighting the risks to the current social housing system if it is not addressed. However, he said the council is still “trying to do things differently”, such as a recently launched key worker housing development. Kirby also said steps were being taken to provide more affordable workspace in the south of the borough because “affordable workspaces in the north of the borough ain’t affordable”. Responding to the audience member, Cariaga said: “You’ve nailed it… at Canada Water we are building 35% affordable housing – a good slug of that is social rent. But we need multiple Canada Waters in and around the South East to be able to even start to tackle some of the challenges.” Image © London Property Alliance