London Recovery Missions: Consultation

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London Recovery Missions: Consultation London Recovery Missions: Consultation Response from the London Housing Panel to the GLA’s request to provide early stage feedback on the eight Recovery Missions identified by the Board For further information about this response please contact the London Housing Panel Secretariat by emailing [email protected] and [email protected] About the London Housing Panel The London Housing Panel was set up in 2019 ‘to enable London’s voluntary and community sector and the communities it serves to influence the capital’s housing policies and practices’. The Panel’s work is underpinned by three principles: • There is an urgent need to build more social housing in London to tackle its housing crisis and we will always push for prioritising the building of and increasing the amount of, social rented housing over other forms of tenure. • By understanding the needs and aspirations of all Londoners, including those who are living most vulnerably, we can ensure house building creates better longer-term outcomes for Londoners. • In addition to the building of new, stable homes at social rent, we want more action taken now to address homelessness, particularly statutory homelessness. In March 2020, the Panel published its Priorities for the Mayor. The Mayor’s response to the Panel’s priorities can be found here. Later that month the Panel wrote a public letter, London Housing Panel requests urgent response to COVID-19 pandemic, to The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and The Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The GLA has asked the Panel to consider… This request is about the London-wide work on recovery which is being led by the London Recovery Board. The Board has posed five questions about the Missions: 1. What are the main issues that you, your sector and/or your members are facing (in the short, medium and long term) on recovery? 2. Is there anything critical to London’s recovery missing from the current set of missions? 3. What actions or interventions would address this challenge? Which would have the most impact? 4. In five years’ time, which pieces of evidence would show that the mission(s) had been achieved? 5. Who needs to be involved in responding to this mission? Please provide specific organisations and/or individuals where possible. The Secretariat is also talking with the GLA about what longer-term strategic engagement with this work will look like. 1 The Panel’s response Overview The Panel has welcomed the drive for more social rented housing evidenced in the report of the Housing Delivery Taskforce. We would like to do more work with the GLA and Deputy Mayor on how communities can cooperate with public and private bodies to help shape what gets built and for whom. While we recognise that the Housing Delivery Taskforce has ensured there is a special focus on the delivery of the capital’s housing; and that the Recovery Missions emphasise a commitment to community engagement, there is a risk that community engagement in housing policy and planning may fall between these two initiatives. Specifically, the Panel would welcome: 1. More emphasis on housing needs throughout the Recovery Missions, particularly including affordable housing for rent and social housing for rent. We would include here the role being played by the private rented sector in meeting housing need. 2. A stronger sense of the dimensions, extent and consequences of housing vulnerabilities and inequalities and how they might be addressed through the Recovery Missions. 3. A more prominent role for a wider range of community-led initiatives to identify, deliver and manage solutions to housing need. As a first step, we would like to see London Housing Panel included as an ‘insight channel’ in London Recovery Board’s work. We would also like to suggest a discussion on the matter of community engagement in housing recovery at a future Panel meeting. Finally, we look forward to co-designing the community roundtable on temporary accommodation. In this response we have made some comments about housing which we see as a cross-cutting issue that will be key to the successful delivery of all eight Recovery Missions. We have then addressed the following Missions in more detail: Mission 5: A strong civil society Mission 6: A robust safety net Mission 7: A new deal for young people Mission 8: Health and wellbeing Housing is a cross-cutting issue ‘A problem this big needs an ambitious Mayoral commitment to beat it’. Raji Hunjan, Chair, London Housing Panel London’s housing crisis is a concern for us all and must be the priority for the London Mayor. It matters both because safe and secure homes are at the heart of wellbeing and a healthy city, and because we all benefit from a more equal city. There are no quick fixes, but if London’s politicians, civil society and communities work together with house builders and planners, then we can do more in the short term whilst working towards our longer-term vision. We are especially concerned about the impact of this crisis on people with multiple vulnerabilities and complex needs, those with limited resources and in need of support to maintain tenancies, access housing help and protect their health. This includes: • Vulnerable adults and older people 2 • Low-income families • Disabled people • Homeless families • Children and young people • Those with no recourse to public funds • Gypsy and Traveller communities • Women fleeing domestic violence and trapped with abusive partners • People struggling with ill-health. Far too many people in these groups are living in overcrowded and cramped conditions, often arranged via the local authority, and sharing facilities with strangers, with limited or no means of self-isolating and protecting themselves, and therefore face particular risks. The Panel would like to emphasise the importance of assessments of housing need, as well as delivery, as a fundamental issue in the Capital’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Housing underpins all eight Recovery Missions. As London recovers from the pandemic, the repercussions in economic and housing security look set to impact the lives of many citizens for years to come as jobs, career paths and homes are lost. The Panel recognises the potential opportunities within recovery planning to address the needs of those who were already insecurely housed, vulnerable and/or experiencing poverty, disadvantage and inequality. We would urge the GLA to promote the importance of safe, secure, stable homes at social rent across all its recovery activities. In the Panel’s response to the Small Sites, Small Builders consultation, we drew attention to the potential for much greater involvement of communities in community-led housing, through ownership co-ops, shortlife co-ops, TMOs, community-led housing associations and Community Land Trusts. In our responses to specific Missions, we refer to greater community engagement and to diverse community-led initiatives. This includes refurbishing empty property which can be achieved in a much shorter timescale than new build; there are some 25,000 long-term empty properties in London. We are committed to the importance of diversity in thinking, planning, delivery and management of alternatives to mainstream housing as a means to encourage new thinking and to provide locally rooted and/or specialist housing which can better address human need. We welcome the conversation opened up by correspondence following the Housing Delivery Taskforce webinar held on 21 August 2020 to further explore our thinking around community voice, community engagement and community-led housing. The rest of this response addresses the following Recovery Missions which align with the Panel’s priorities. Mission 5 A strong civil society Mission: “All Londoners can play an active role in their communities; making London a more equal and inclusive city post COVID-19.” 1. What are the main issues that you, your sector and/or your members are facing (in the short, medium and long term) on recovery? The building of housing that is unsuitable or unaffordable for the majority of Londoners, is reinforcing housing inequality and leaving people feeling powerless. It is in the interests of a thriving London for power to be shifted away from house builders through effective community engagement, inclusion and public scrutiny being made integral to decisions about the allocation of money and land. 3 • This is about supporting communities to drive the way their housing needs are addressed both directly through community-led house-building and renovation initiatives and also through much improved collaboration with councils and other landlords as well as developers. • Communities need to be involved in what is being built and for whom. • This also provides an opportunity to provide training and work experience/local employment, and harness community effort. 2. Is there anything critical to London’s recovery missing from the current set of missions? Recovery is an opportunity for the GLA to fulfil its commitment to community engagement in the provision of housing for all Londoners. This is a good time for the GLA and local councils to be working with communities and community-led organisations that are already finding ways to do things differently. The pandemic has also exposed more clearly than ever the need for central government funding for social rented housing and we can see the opportunity for joint lobbying of the government by ourselves, the groups we represent, the Mayor and the GLA. 3. What actions or interventions would address this challenge? Which would have the most impact? • Embed listening structures in the GLA with a focus on Housing and Land, and Planning, so that all people with housing needs – whether they are homeless, temporarily or vulnerably housed or in stable accommodation – are heard.
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