• AT the October 18 planning committee I spoke up about my frustration that national government planning policies prohibit Camden Council from implementing our own guidelines around requirements for social housing.

The committee was faced, yet again, with a planning application from a private developer arguing that they could not include any so-called affordable housing units in a new block of flats. The main reason: predicted profit margins were too small.

Others on the committee, from across party political lines, agreed that such unwillingness to support Camden’s efforts to increase social housing was dispiriting.

But national planning policy favoured the applicant because it maintains that a scheme is only viable if it can extract a profit of around 20 per cent.

In the end the committee voted to support the application. We had no choice. Had we refused planning permission the developer would have appealed.

With national policy on their side they likely would have won, costing us legal fees and loss of any influence the council can exert to negotiate planning gains or shape a new-build.

If we are serious about increasing the stock of social housing in Camden we need to find ways to enable the council to build more homes.

But we must also fight for the reform of government planning policies that currently handcuff local democracy – and strive for a new relationship with private developers that ensures a more healthy balance between reasonable profit and community benefit.

CLLR ANNA WRIGHT
Labour, Highgate ward