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Forum topic: London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

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London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

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30 Jul 2019 01:02 #4722

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[Original article]

In the last few days both the Mayor of London and Enfield Council have published new strategy documents relating to tackling problems with the availability and affordability of housing within their respective geographical areas of responsibility.

The Mayor has published a "blueprint report" which sets out his vision for reforming London's private rented sector. Enfield Council is bundling together two draft strategies for consultation under the overall titleThe right home for everyone - a draft Strategy for Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping and a draft Strategy for Housing and Growth.


Reforming the private rented sector in London

london private renting statsThe main points of the Mayor of London's blueprint for the private rented sector are proposals to reform tenancy laws to make it harder for landlords to evict tenants without good reason, and to develop and implement a system to reduce private rents in London gradually over time.  However, the Mayor does not have the power to implement either, so his blueprint instead sets out the case for the necessary changes to be made by central government.

Journalist Dave Hill has published a summary and analysis of the proposals on his website OnLondon.


Building more homes and better homes in Enfield

The proposed strategy for housing and growth is summarised in this infographic.

housing growth strategy

Five guiding principles are listed:

  • Affordable to Enfield residents
    This means creating developments where different people on different incomes can live
  • Health promoting
    This means helping people to eat well, be smoke free, physically active, emotionally well and live in thermal comfort
  • Digitally connected
    This means creating homes that will be fit for future technology, like providing Fibre-to-the-premises and smart homes/meters that help people with disabilities or health conditions
  • Child, age and disability friendly
    This means providing safe outside play provision, helping all residents to stay safe in their communities and when out and about and providing places where people can meet socially
  • Environmentally sustainable
    This means using renewable heat sources, creating safe travel routes by foot and bicycle, creating community gardens and green spaces and promoting recycling and reusing

Tackling homelessness in Enfield

The background to the draft strategy to decrease homelessness and rough sleeping in Enfield includes the following:

  • Homelessness has increased in Enfield by 250% since 2011/12 – Homelessness levels in Enfield are higher than London and national averages
  • In Enfield, there are almost 3,500 households in Temporary Accommodation
  • Private Rented Sector rents have increased by 37% since 2011
  • Eviction from the Private Rented Sector is the biggest cause of
    homelessness in Enfield
  • Rough sleeping in Enfield has increased significantly in recent years
  • In 2018/19, Enfield spent over £66m on the Temporary Accommodation service, with a net cost to the local authority of £7m.

 The main points of the draft strategy are shown in the figure below:

enfield homelessness strategy

the right home for everyone

Details of the consultation

Enfield Council is developing two new strategies which will have a huge impact on how we will achieve our ambition to create a lifetime of opportunities in Enfield. The Housing and Growth Strategy shows our approach to building more homes and better homes that will benefit everyone in Enfield. The Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy details how we will work across the Council, with our partners and with the community to prevent and end homelessness in Enfield.

Background documents

Executive summaries

Draft strategy for Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

Draft strategy for Housing and Growth

Who can participate

All residents

How to tell us your views

To give us your specific views on the proposed strategies, please complete this short survey, which should take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. 

You can also let us know your views by emailing us at 

We will also be consulting at a number of events over the summer.  You can find us here:

Craig Park Fun Day - Thursday 8th August

Cumberland Square Garden Launch - Thursday 15th August

Meyers Green Fun Day - Tuesday 20th August

Albany Park Fun Day - Wednesday 28th August

In addition we will  be visiting local community groups to consult on the strategies.  If you would like us to visit your local community group, please contact 

Start and closing dates

Starts 26 July 2019

Closes 21 Oct 2019

Further information

For further information please email 

We will soon be consulting on a proposed Selective and Additional Licensing scheme in Enfield. Please keep an eye out on our consultation page for more details.

Source: new.enfield.gov.uk/consultations/the-right-home-for-everyone

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London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

Darren Edgar

01 Aug 2019 10:19 #4723

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Some funny ironies and dichotomies in there. Mayor's proposals are ridiculous and not just because he cannot actually effect them!! Rent controls always fail. They reduce supply of rental stock to the market and reduce the quality and level of what is provided as private landlords (the majority of which in this country remain "mom & pop" investors with 3 or less) are not incentivised or have sufficient liquidity to invest in their properties.

And evictions are already being made harder by the Government at a national level with the scrapping of S.21. It currently takes 3-6 months to evict someone in London - not sure how or why anyone has come to the conclusion that that's easy therefore or that LL's just do it for sh*ts & giggles. Meanwhile the tenant is free to trash the place and live rent free.

Nice to see some emphasis in the housing & growth strategy of actually BUILDING, especially in well connected locations. Though the usual get out of jail free caveat card has been left in there so councils can bow to anti-development campaigners - please build but just not exactly here, to exactly this design, to exactly this tenure mix and pricing point.

Given build costs are relatively fixed and outside local authority control, I wonder if Enfield will show commitment to the above tenure and pricing aspirations by allowing reduced social (free council) housing in new developments?

In simple terms, a developer for 50 flats in Enfield might be looking at a £17m GDV. If forced to give away 20 to social then it'd need to sell the 30 privates at £500k. If Enfield allowed it to have 45 private and 5 shared ownership then the privates could be sold for £350k. You would then have a supply of 45 new housing units at affordable pricing levels.

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London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

Neil Littman

01 Aug 2019 11:22 #4724

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London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

Darren Edgar

01 Aug 2019 18:15 #4727

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Caught plenty of it last night thanks. What was the conclusion/recommendation from dear George? BUILD.

What have I been saying? BUILD.

What do all the anti development campaigners want? NO BUILDING.

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