Originally published: Conservative Home website, 01/03/2024
Like much of the country, London is facing a housing crisis. Decades of population growth outpacing housing stock have seen both house prices and rents rise significantly. In London, the average person now spends more than half their income on rent. In our borough, Kensington & Chelsea, that rises to over 80 per cent. For this reason, we are looking at all options available to add housing volume with resident support. Our latest idea, using a ‘Local Development Order’, will allow residents to build mansard roofs in conservation areas.
Since 2012, London has lagged behind the rest of England in delivering ‘net additional dwellings’, and is missing its targets for new homes by a whopping 15,000 a year. The Mayor likes to vaunt his record on delivering so-called ‘affordable homes’, but aside from the fact that these figures are so heavily massaged they classify as wagyu, this tunnel-vision focus on ‘affordable housing’ makes many developments unviable and forgets the reality that most people do not qualify for social or subsidised housing.
What we need is for normal housing to be affordable. And given the policy failure at the heart of London (the Mayor’s most recent ‘solution’, rent control has a uniquely dismal track record), it is incumbent on London Boroughs to do all we can to ease this problem.
In Kensington & Chelsea, we have a unique set of challenges: we are the fourth densest local authority in the country with over 11,000 people per sq km, and more than 70 per cent of the borough is in a Conservation Area, severely limiting what can be built here. However, these challenges do not abrogate us of our responsibility. Rather, we need to find creative solutions.
This is why, in addition to launching our largest housebuilding programme in half a century to create 600 beautiful new homes, we are also increasing flexibility for industrial sites to incorporate residential units, working with owners of undeveloped brownfield sites to progress attractive schemes local residents can support, and making it easier to convert under-utilised hotels or hostels into homes.
Our latest idea though is possibly the most imaginative. Recently, residents in the (predominantly Victorian) Boltons Conservation Area approached us regarding adding a mansard to their houses. Normally this would be resisted on heritage grounds, but with resident support, we examined ways to add this living space while preserving the area’s character. What we came up with was invoking something called a ‘Local Development Order’ (LDO).
An LDO is a rarely-used mechanism introduced in 2015 that allows a Local Planning Authority to expand permitted development rights in specific ways. We’re starting (pending final consultation) with one street for which we are specifying an appropriate design in detail. Residents of this street will be able to build mansards without further reference to the Council, provided they use the official design.
We’ve tried to combine both modern and historic best practices, drawing on work by Create Streets and others. Historic building acts stringently controlled the form of mansards, mandating everything from dimensions to materials. With this LDO, our conservation officers have kept this traditionally British (indeed, Londonian) design of mansard, but taken the opportunity to incorporate inconspicuous solar panels and double glazing.
This particular LDO only covers a small area, but it can become a blueprint for larger schemes and different types of development. Islington, for example, recently rejected planning permission for a whole street in a Conservation Area to build mansards. This could be a perfect opportunity for them to consider an LDO.
Of course an LDO is just one small part of what needs to be a much bigger solution. A new mansard is not a new house. But, by adding floorspace, it can allow a two-bed to become a three or four-bed, meaning a family doesn’t need to move out as it grows. It might also allow for the division of a building that wasn’t possible before, meaning one building becomes two homes. Overall it’s a useful tool to add to the belt of a Local Authority. For us in Kensington & Chelsea, it means that we can protect the character and beauty of our buildings for the next generation, while ensuring Conservation Areas are able to do their bit in the effort to meet London’s housing needs.
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