Affordable homes row prompts withdrawal of Core Strategy

London mayor Ken Livingstone has welcomed the decision by Islington council to withdraw its Core Strategy following a wrangle over the level of new and affordable housing the local authority planned to make provision for in its new local plan.

The London borough's move followed a meeting between the planning authority and the planning inspector due to hold the hearing into the council's Core Strategy.

The inspector told the planning authority its Core Strategy could not be approved in its present form because it did not meet the housing target set out in the capital's spatial plan.

The London Plan expects Islington to provide for 1,160 new homes each year over the next decade whereas the borough proposed 1,066 new homes annually over the next ten years.

Livingstone said: "Islington had put at risk its whole strategy by trying to avoid its responsibilities to adhere to my affordable housing targets, which sends a strong signal to those other boroughs about the risks of ignoring the London plan."

Councillor Lucy Watt, executive member for environment at Islington, said: "Local residents tell us they don't want the Mayor's London Plan forcing through big housing developments in already crowded neighborhoods.

"At the moment we are not in agreement [with the inspector] so we're taking this opportunity to withdraw the Core Strategy now and work with a panel of independent local experts to identify a way forward that we can all accept."

Read the Mayor of London press release here.

View 'The London Plan' here.

Roger Milne

5 July 2007