Plans submitted to build homes to cost half the market price

BY TOBY PORTER

toby@slpmedia.co.uk

Plans have been submitted to town hall chiefs to build affordable homes that will be sold at less than half the market value.

Campaigners, Lewisham Citizens, have submitted their plans to the council for 11 affordable half-price homes.

To qualify, applicants must be in a certain income bracket and have strong ties to the community. Applications are scheduled to open in 2019.

If homeowners choose to move, they have to reapply through the same formula when they sell.

This means each year, prices will rise with average incomes across the borough, rather than the open market.

Currently, one-bedroomed homes will be £192,000, and two-beds will be £244,000 – less than half the market price for homes in Lewisham.

The homes will be delivered along with London Community Land Trust (CLT).

Janet Emmanuel, a member of Lewisham Citizens, said: “The campaign to get these homes built came from us talking to hundreds of our friends, family and neighbours and hearing of the hardship when it came to peoples’ housing situation.

“After hearing these stories, 400 of us came together to meet then Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock, who agreed to find us our first site.

“We were ecstatic. Since then, we’ve been working on the site with London CLT and the architects, Archio, to knock on doors, hold meetings, workshops and speak to as many people that live and work near the site as possible.

Now the plans are in, we’re working with the new Mayor of Lewisham, Damian Egan, to find sites for at least 200 homes in the borough.”

Mellis Haward, director at Archio said: “We were delighted to be picked by the community to be their architects. These homes demonstrate the incredible opportunity to create genuinely affordable homes on the kind of forgotten garage sites, which we see all over London.”

Katy Milner, a resident living next to the earmarked site just off Brasted Close, said: “I have been a resident in Brasted Close for nearly 11 years. I am really excited about the London CLT project and have been very impressed by the designs put forward by Archio who have listened to residents’ concerns every step of the way.

“It is an amazing opportunity to be part of the steering committee of such a pioneering project. The final design is very impressive, it feels spacious, without being overbearing to the surrounding estate.”