"Teekall and his wife are raising a family in Peckham, south London. He runs a successful business as a commercial designer with a studio just down the road, and she works in higher education. Their two boys attend the local primary school. However, the family has outgrown their one-and-a-half-bedroom flat. Although they would like to stay in Peckham, they can't afford to."
"Just around the corner from where they live, the developer Berkeley Homes is proposing to build 877 new units, on the site of the Aylesham Centre shopping complex in the heart of Peckham, claiming it is responding to the government's commitment to build 1.5m new homes to tackle the acute housing crisis. Given the predicament Teekall finds himself in, he might be expected to welcome plans for hundreds of new homes, but the opposite is the case."
"After Berkeley slashed the amount of affordable housing in the project from the 35% then required to just 12%, the council rejected the scheme. Undeterred, Berkeley bypassed the council and appealed directly to the government's national planning inspectorate for a decision, circumventing the local decision-making process. A public inquiry run by the inspectorate ahead of its final decision, and which opens today (Tuesday), is seen by campaigners as a test case for the government's ability to push forward with its planning reforms."
A Peckham family has outgrown their one-and-a-half-bedroom flat but cannot afford local market prices. Berkeley Homes proposes 877 units on the Aylesham Centre site, citing the government's 1.5m new homes commitment to address the housing crisis. The developer cut affordable housing from 35% to 12%, leading Southwark council, residents and the local MP to reject the scheme as unsuitable for a highly diverse area. Berkeley appealed the council decision to the planning inspectorate, triggering a public inquiry framed as a test of planning reforms and the yimby–nimby debate.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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