Hammersmith and Fulham Council says it has ‘won a battle’ over affordable housing targets in the borough after the government backed down.
Hammersmith and Fulham wants to change its 65% affordable housing target within its Unitary Development Plan, as it says it is unrealistic and unviable in today’s housing market.
However Secretary of State Hazel Blears wanted to block this change in policy.
The council applied for a judicial review, which the Secretary of State today confirmed she would not contest.
Leader of the Council, Stephen Greenhalgh, said: ‘A 65 per cent affordable housing target in today’s uncertain property market and an absolute bar on using employment land for anything else is completely unviable. It could have potentially resulted in 65 per cent of nothing being built.
‘The decision by the Government not to contest our judicial review is a victory for commonsense in today’s market and a victory that will enable us to respond to our own housing needs and demands by building mixed, sustainable, viable communities that significantly increases the low cost home ownership housing available in the borough.’
