Political interview: Eric Pickles raps 'poor doors' in London apartment blocks

 
'Everybody should be treated equally', says Eric Pickles on 'poor doors'
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Cabinet minister Eric Pickles today criticised housing developers who segregate poorer social tenants from wealthy owners by forcing them to use separate front entrances.

The Communities Secretary told the Evening Standard that people should be “treated equally” where possible.

His comments follow a growing trend in multimillion-pound London apartment blocks to install unattractive “poor doors” for social housing residents and a grand entrance hall for others.

“I can understand that some houses may have concierges and I understand why that might be different but my general view is that everybody should be treated equally,” he said.

Mr Pickles said new estates should have a mix of social and affordable housing beside more expensive homes, rather than separate them. “I really approve of mixed developments,” he added. “I have a load of mixed housing in my patch. You can’t tell what is the social and what is the affordable housing.

“I quite like it that way but I’m not prescribing. Councils should be able to decide that.”

The minister’s remarks will infuriate critics who say he watered down rules that required developers to plan for 50 per cent affording housing.

And he declined to pronounce on a controversy over London’s upmarket Battersea development — where critics say the central area contains only eight per cent affordable housing, with none in five luxury apartment blocks designed by architect Frank Gehry.

“It’s not up to me to determine what a local authority puts together,” said Mr Pickles. “But I do say I have a strong preference for mixed development.”

He claims his policy of lighter regulation has achieved a massive increase in construction in the past two years.

The minister argued: “The real problem with the old system, where there were rules that 50 per cent of houses had to be affordable, was that you got 50 per cent of nothing. We recognised that building houses is a complicated market. You can’t buck the market. You have to build its confidence up.” More than 170,000 affordable homes have been built since 2011, he said. But he declined to pledge how many will be delivered in the next parliament, saying: “We don’t have housing targets.”

Mr Pickles was speaking as he announced the lift-off for a 3,000-home development in Docklands with £200 million of Government lending.

Work on the Wood Wharf project will start within months after a decade of planning. It will have shops, offices and parkland as well as 3,220 homes — including 607 affordable ones.

The deal sees the Canary Wharf group given a £200 million loan to provide infrastructure to support the development and relocate old facilities.

Mr Pickles, the MP for Brentwood & Ongar, said getting the private sector to invest is critical to building homes in the numbers Londoners demand, while red tape leads to less growth.

He argued that Labour’s suggested solutions to London’s housing shortage and the disappointments faced by Generation Rent would not work.

The minister claimed rent controls proposed by Labour leader Ed Miliband would deter private sector investment in affordable flats for rent and “absolutely kill the whole market”.

He went on: “People want homes they can have pride in. That’s a philosophical difference between the parties. Labour want to build houses. I want to build homes.”@JoeMurphyLondon

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