There was an interesting presentation at the FH Assembly last night from Lewisham's Head of Strategy about the Council's budget saving proposals. The question which struck me was whether proposals which would lead to increased revenues are considered in the same process - and here I think mainly of getting more development, hence more revenue from Council tax and new homes bonus, finding places for people to live, as well as stimulating the local economy. Obviously there's a point when you have to set aside such higher level considerations and make those hard decisions about what services get cut / what entrenched inefficiencies need to be dealt with, but the Council should surely be able to balance the unpleasant business of explaining the bad news with an account of what they are doing to get some better news.

I also saw an article on the Homes & Property web site in which "Leading architect Terry Farrell tells ... why Britain is cursed by housing myths and meddling politicians". Lots of interesting stuff in there, including this

which I don't quite believe. Later in the article he says that we in Lewisham could get 3,000 new home at Convoys Wharf in Deptford, but, as I understand it, the problem here is very much a planning one - the developers want to build a Hong Kong style tower, but the planners - not just in Lewisham - do not want this. I hope it's clear that I too don't much want such towers, but I would like to see planners and developers somehow getting to yes.

Terry Farrell also writes "what’s in the middle, stopping it? It must be to do with finance. Finance, and a muddled marketplace." which has some sense in it - in other parts of the article he describes the difficulties which the speculative element in house prices bring, but he also goes on to say how there is finance, albeit from overseas, and how, even if this money comes in as an investment, it still results in more properties where people can live. Given that the boom in London property is so much driven by people wanting to come to live here, it shouldn't be a big problem that the new housing being built in response to this demand are the sorts of flats for rent that this newcomers to London will typically want.

Terry Farrell doesn't make the further point that if such new properties are built for this market segment, it will free up other existing property, so making it more available, and more affordable for existing Londoners