Back in 2008, one Mayoral candidate explained that it would require imagination to solve
London’s housing problems. The candidate developed a manifesto that suggested a new form of “democratic” home ownership, which which would “help build stronger communities”,
and which would allow houses to “remain affordable for future generations”. He said he would “create a network of Community Land Trusts, managed by cooperatives to give homes to
people who are indispensable to this city.”
His name was Boris Johnson and since he was elected not a single Community Land Trust has materialised in the capital.
This is a quiet tragedy. Just like Ken Livingstone, Boris has spent huge amounts of time and resources promoting New Labourish ‘affordable housing’. Tens of thousands of units variously involving shared-ownership schemes, complex lending arrangements or – more often – pokey rooms have sprung up around town, but nothing has been done to address the fundamental economics of the capital’s housing crisis.
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