Share<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Green councillors are making North London housing even more expensive <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Green Party has a habit of supporting things in principle, only to oppose them in practice <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Do the Greens really care about first-time buyers? <\/p>\n This week\u2019s edition of Nimby Watch comes to you from the under-reported and frankly underrated borough of Islington<\/a>, North London\u2026<\/p>\n I see we\u2019re really pushing out the boat on the Nimby Watch travel budget this week, then? Yes, we are in what is indisputably London\u2019s greatest borough \u2013 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.<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u2026 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Islington has 41 separate \u2018conservation areas\u2019, 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\u2019s before you start looking at the borough\u2019s listed buildings \u2013 of which it has at least 4,500.<\/p>\n That sounds like something of a Nimby paradise, then. Are you being sarcastic? Even I can\u2019t 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\u2019s in zones one and two with great transport links might be a factor there, too.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the good side. The bad side is that because there\u2019s minimal building here and huge demand \u2013 housing is expensive. The average rent for a one-bedroom flat is \u00a32,053. If you want a three-bed family home, you\u2019re looking at \u00a32,839 a month in rent. Buying a home here is just out of shot for most people: first time buyers\u00a0in Islington spend an average of \u00a3607,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d make a joke about everything being expensive in London but, honestly, I\u2019m mostly too outraged. Yeah, a mortgage lets you borrow five times your salary. A \u2018starter\u2019 home in Islington is more than 20 times the annual salary for a worker on London\u2019s living wage. Locals, key workers, you name it, are all constantly complaining about being priced out.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 but now it\u2019s facing a spirited challenge on its left from the Greens.<\/p>\n That makes sense. The Green Party has the youngest voting base in the country. It\u2019s the party of millennials and Gen Z. So it\u2019s no surprise they\u2019re pushing Labour to build more! You\u2019d think that was how it worked, wouldn\u2019t you? But no. Islington Labour have discovered Yimbyism, and they are accusing the Greens of opposing new homes across the area.<\/p>\n Do they have evidence to back that up? They certainly claim that they do. Labour have produced a dossier<\/a> claiming that Greens in the area have opposed at least 676 socially rented homes \u2013 the top tier of affordable housing, alongside many more homes that would be privately sold or rented.\u00a0<\/p>\n