Affordable housing queried in London regeneration scheme

A new report has questioned whether local residents will be able to afford the new homes being built as part of Enfield Council’s flagship Meridian Water regeneration scheme.

The London borough’s overview and scrutiny committee is due to meet this week (15 September) to discuss a report by the Meridian Water Scrutiny Workstream, which claims the homes that will be built will be ‘unaffordable to the majority of local people’.

According to the report, the average household income in the local area is between £26,000 and £30,000, while the lowest priced open market flat at Meridian Water would require an income of £59,000.

The report adds that a quarter stake in the lowest priced shared ownership flat would require an income of £44,000.

‘Furthermore, the majority of the homes at Meridian Water would be open market, so it is unclear how local people would be the main beneficiaries if they could not afford to live in the majority of the homes created,’ the report states.

The Meridian Water project began in 2013 when the council set out a masterplan for the 210-acre site, seeing it as an investment opportunity that would eventually provide up to 5,000 homes and 3,000 jobs.

The original developer Barratt London pulled out in October 2017, after the council refused to sign up to a ‘poor deal for residents’.

The London borough then took back control of the overall project in July 2018.

Galliford Try Partnerships was chosen as he council’s partner to build the first phase in April 2019.

The report adds that the regeneration of Meridian Water is a ‘great and rare opportunity’ and has the potential to make a ‘huge contribution towards solving Enfield’s housing crisis and be something of enormous benefit to future generations’.

‘The costs of Enfield’s housing crisis to the council and to the wider public purse are huge – the cost of temporary accommodation alone is £66 million per year,’ it adds.

But council leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan said the report contains ‘some inaccuracies and misunderstandings’.

‘Meridian Water is a unique major regeneration programme in London, being designed around and for local people,’ said the council leader.

‘The housing offer will cater to a diverse range of needs – there will be affordable housing for key workers, for those in priority housing need including people who need wheelchair accessible housing, those who require extra care, for people who want to rent privately in quality accommodation on longer term tenancies, and for those who would like to buy into the area,’ he added.

Photo Credit – Enfield Council