Share

Green councillors are making North London housing even more expensive

The Green Party has a habit of supporting things in principle, only to oppose them in practice

Do the Greens really care about first-time buyers?

This week’s edition of Nimby Watch comes to you from the under-reported and frankly underrated borough of Islington, North London…

I see we’re really pushing out the boat on the Nimby Watch travel budget this week, then? Yes, we are in what is indisputably London’s greatest borough – Islington. And yes, that does happen to be the borough in which the author of this column lives. You can only go so long writing about Nimbyism without writing about your own back yard, after all.

That’s… an annoyingly reasonable point, actually. So, have you managed to turn your neighbourhood into a model of Yimbyism for the rest of the nation to follow? I absolutely have not. Islington has long been a borough where almost nothing much ever gets done. 

Islington has 41 separate ‘conservation areas’, covering about 50% of its area. These zones have even more stringent planning rules and restrictions, making even modest extensions nightmarish and bigger building projects all but impossible. And that’s before you start looking at the borough’s listed buildings – of which it has at least 4,500.

That sounds like something of a Nimby paradise, then. Are you being sarcastic? Even I can’t tell any more. But in reality, it pretty much is, with everything that entails: there are lots of beautiful buildings here, nice parks and great shops and restaurants. Lots of people want to live here, though the fact it’s in zones one and two with great transport links might be a factor there, too.

That’s the good side. The bad side is that because there’s minimal building here and huge demand – housing is expensive. The average rent for a one-bedroom flat is £2,053. If you want a three-bed family home, you’re looking at £2,839 a month in rent. Buying a home here is just out of shot for most people: first time buyers in Islington spend an average of £607,000. 

I’d make a joke about everything being expensive in London but, honestly, I’m mostly too outraged. Yeah, a mortgage lets you borrow five times your salary. A ‘starter’ home in Islington is more than 20 times the annual salary for a worker on London’s living wage. Locals, key workers, you name it, are all constantly complaining about being priced out.

Someone must be fighting to make things better, then? For a long time, no. Islington politics were solidly based in Nimbyism, and opposing a development was usually a safer bet than supporting it. But things seem to be changing. Islington has long been a one-party state, dominated by Labour – but now it’s facing a spirited challenge on its left from the Greens.

That makes sense. The Green Party has the youngest voting base in the country. It’s the party of millennials and Gen Z. So it’s no surprise they’re pushing Labour to build more! You’d think that was how it worked, wouldn’t you? But no. Islington Labour have discovered Yimbyism, and they are accusing the Greens of opposing new homes across the area.

Do they have evidence to back that up? They certainly claim that they do. Labour have produced a dossier claiming that Greens in the area have opposed at least 676 socially rented homes – the top tier of affordable housing, alongside many more homes that would be privately sold or rented. 

But they’ve got an even more devastating line. A leaflet circulated in recent months in Tufnell Park, they claim (the Greens say the leaflet was not an official party publication and does not represent their views), which said the following: ‘The more privately owned units come onto the property market, the greater the negative impact will be on the value of our flats.’

Well… yes, eventually. That’s sort of the entire point, isn’t it? If we want housing to be affordable, that means homes need to be cheaper. I couldn’t agree more. It does seem that the Green Party are trying to find ways around that. They could argue that only building council houses, or social rent, or key worker homes might allow you to increase housing supply without hurting house prices.

That’s debatable. But even if it works, it seems somewhat unfair, doesn’t it? There seems to be potential for disaster if London has a few golden ticket council houses with affordable rents, and then anyone else earning less than six figures is priced out into zone four. If you want people to afford homes, you need to build some.

Construction work doesn’t feel very green, though, does it? It can always be improved! But the newly Yimby-friendly Labour Party has a fair point here. The Green Party has a habit of supporting things in principle and opposing them in practice. It wants environmentally friendly transport, then opposes HS2. It wants clean energy, but opposes wind farms locally. It supports affordable housing, but opposes almost every building project it sees. 

To govern is to choose. Is the Green Party willing to start making decisions?

This article has been edited to reflect the fact that the Islington Greens say that the material from which the quote was taken is a private letter, not a Green Party publication, and does not represent the views of the Green Party.

 – the best pieces from CapX and across the web.

CapX depends on the generosity of its readers. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation.

James Ball is an award winning journalist, broadcaster and author.

Columns are the author’s own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of CapX.