Enfield certainly needs more homes. There are many people,
especially young people, who need homes of their own. So what they need is
affordable homes. The redevelopment of Chase Farm is an opportunity to provide
those homes yet the Council has accepted that only 13% of the 500 need to be
affordable – rather than the 40% usually required.
The Royal Free claims that 13% is more that it can really
afford and has shared the calculations (technically the Financial Viability Assessment) with the Council officers. But only the
officers. Planning Committee members can’t see them and neither can we – the
public – even though it’s our NHS negotiating with our Council! And this is
despite judgements by the Information Commissioner and the relevant Tribunal in
a case in Greenwich and in at least four other cases that the calculations
should be published. The tribunal judge said publication of the calculations
“would enrich the debate on an issue of considerable public importance”.
The issue here is transparency versus secrecy. Whether two
public bodies should be able to reach a private understanding to keep key facts
from the public. And it is the result of a drift towards NHS privatisation
which obliges a world-class hospital to think like a property developer.
It appears that elected politicians – the democratically
elected servants of the people – must take lessons in accountability from an
unelected and unaccountable judge.
Call me naïve if you will – but I think that’s wrong.
It’s not too late to publish.
Yesterday the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published an analysis of the Knight Dragon FVA. See https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2015/05/26/dismay-doesnt-do-it-justice-how-a-secret-system-was-used-to-axe-hundreds-of-affordable-homes-on-britains-most-iconic-construction-site/.
ReplyDeleteOn 11 May Greenwich Council proposed "to introduce a new list of locally established criteria that sets out what information should be provided when submitting a planning application – which includes the requirement to provide a fully public viability study for residential developments with less than 35 per cent affordable homes. This will then be subject to full public consultation".
That is very welcome and would set a valuable precedent.
I have made a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner about the Council's refusal to publish the Viability Assessment and the Commissioner's Office has opened a case. This is a slow process but I'm hopeful of success.
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