Greater London Authority Bill

I did not say always, but I do say likely. Given the housing pressures in London, which the hon. Gentleman, to give him credit, admits and given the huge levels of housing need which he, like me, must have in his constituency, we need to ensure that proper provision is made for affordable housing, both intermediate and social rented housing, in London. That is singularly not being delivered by many boroughs, including Liberal Democrat boroughs such as Islington and the Conservative boroughs to which I referred earlier. I do not wish to take up a great deal of time as others wish to speak, but let me give an example that shows the crushing need for the powers to lie with a responsible authority, rather than with many of the borough councils. I had the pleasure this morning of attending the opening of a housing development in my constituency—a development of 128 affordable homes, opened by the Countess of Wessex and including 21 homes run by the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation for ex-servicemen who had previously been homeless. The rest of the development is a mix of shared ownership and affordable homes run by Threshold Housing. The scheme is a model development in every respect. It is built on derelict land in place of housing that had been demolished by a Conservative Government for a road widening scheme that was rightly withdrawn by a Labour Government. It is built to the highest environmental standards, with water drawn from a borehole deep in the earth, which also provided heating. It is environmentally self-sufficient, with internal gardens within the property. Some of the people to whom I spoke, who are residents of the housing, described it as more like a boutique hotel than social housing. I have no doubt that the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) and the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) will visit it shortly—they always visit model housing developments in my constituency—and say how wonderful it is. Needless to say, the development was commissioned and built under the guidance of a Labour council. That council is now a Conservative council. Two weeks ago, another scheme went before a Conservative-controlled planning committee. The scheme was exactly the same size, and the proposal was the same—that is, for 100 per cent. affordable housing. At the behest of the committee, the development is now 53 per cent. market housing and 43 per cent. shared ownership housing, but at a price out of the reach of any of my constituents. The reason given for that is that there is too much social housing in the area. I need only say that the development is just off the King’s road on the Chelsea borders. Whatever one says about that area, I do not think one would say it was an area with an excess of social housing. If that is the cynical approach that is being taken by borough councils, particularly Conservative borough councils in London, there is an absolute and immediate need for a responsible authority—