The Charity Commission must act

Holloway prison site which was bought by Peabody in March last year

• YOUR September 11 front-page report on Peabody’s decision to renege on their commitment to 42 per cent of the homes that they will build on the former Holloway women’s prison site reveals a number of worrying issues, (Holloway Prison site homes pledge is ‘diluted’).

Since Margaret Thatcher issued an edict in 1979 bringing council house building to a grinding halt and legislation requiring councils to sell homes to their tenants passed parliament, we’ve faced a growing shortage of affordable housing for rent.

This shortage affects all housing sectors, prices for owner-occupiers and private rents have soared to unaffordable levels.

The old ladder where people would start their lives in a council or housing association home, with many saving a deposit to buy their own home, later buying in the private sector, thus freeing a council / housing association home for rent, has long gone.

We now have homelessness on a massive scale. Thatcher’s commitment to recycle the receipts from council house sales to build new council homes was forgotten before the ink was dry on it.

We now have an entirely predictable crisis on our hands. Sadly the Labour governments of 1997 to 2010 tried band-aid solutions for what had become a gaping wound.

Islington Council and the Mayor of London are to be congratulated for doing all they can to abate the crisis. Sadly the coalition and Conservative national governments since 2010 have oscillated from indifference to outright hostility to council house building.

The crisis has two aspects, one of which I feel acutely as a wheelchair user, the lack of affordable homes in absolute terms, and the even more acute shortage of homes in all sectors accessible to disabled owners or tenants.

I myself was trapped for over two years in a third-floor flat inaccessible to wheelchairs until I was granted a transfer on medical grounds to my current council flat.

I’ll be eternally grateful to my St Mary’s ward councillors and MP Emily Thornberry for their assistance. I’m acutely aware, however, that too many remain trapped in inaccessible homes.

Peabody is a registered charity. It enjoys tax advantages.

Like too many housing associations it appears to have lost sight of its purpose; to provide quality homes for tenants at the lowest possible rent, including accessible and adaptable homes built to the Lifetime Homes standard. It’s time that the Charity Commission looked into housing associations.

I know the council and the London mayor face legal restrictions, but they must resist Peabody’s attempt to renege on its commitments. This is a tactic used by the very worst of private developers.

The current prime minister’s idea of affordability was made clear when he declared rents of £1,500 to £2,000 a month at the former Royal Mail sorting office at Farringdon “affordable”. To whom?

His latest wheeze to “reform” planning law is a naked power-grab by central government. It will ensure that we build the slums of the future. It’s a spivs’ charter. I hope that Islington Council and the Mayor of London stand firm.

Peabody should only get final planning permission if they: a) stick to their commitment; b) bring forward a high-quality scheme architecturally and environmentally; and c) build to Lifetime Homes standards.

STEVEN POWELL

Highbury Station Road, N1