Greater London Authority Bill

I will continue: "““I could not see how Westminster would be able to achieve it. I knew the district valuer’s views on land values in Westminster and the implications that they would have for how much affordable housing could be afforded and where it would go””.—[Official Report, 8/5/07; col. GC156.]" The reason we have such high land values in parts of Westminster is that we are driving the affordable and social housing offsite into other areas. We are creating more and more exclusivity in certain zoned parts of Belgravia, Knightsbridge and SW1 generally, with the effect that prices are going up and up. If you want to stabilise those prices, you should more equitably distribute affordable and social housing throughout the whole of the community. That is what we should be doing. That is why I have argued repeatedly that the Mayor has to have those powers, otherwise you end up with authorities such as Westminster coming up with the kind of drivel-ridden Section 106 agreement that Westminster City Council drew up over the Bowater development. I say to my noble friends that if we are going to go down the Amendment No. 94 route, as I hope we are, where it talks about, "““the member of the Assembly whose constituency covers the land subject to the application””," there is consultation with members in areas where offsite affordable and social housing provision is to be made available. That way we will develop the argument for driving affordable and social housing onsite, where it should be and should have been in the Bowater application.