Single Aspect Blog

2.1 Appropriate Density

This looks like common sense but I’m sad to say it went over my head when it got on to public transport accessibility levels, although all they’re really saying is don’t build housing where there aren’t good transport links or put in good transport links to where there is isolated housing.

Does Thamesmead come to mind?  It did to me.  Look at it on Google Earth, stuck out there by the river accessible only by bus.  One of the hopes of Crossrail was that the full version would reach Thamesmead but with the budget cuts I don’t know whether or not this will happen, but I can’t help thinking that Boris and his advisers had Thamesmead in mind when they wrote the following:-

“We must avoid the problems that occur when large populations are concentrated in inaccessible places without the necessary facilities.”

Page 29 carries a table whose comprehension I have failed miserably but I’m happy to read that some consideration has been given to the viability of new communities.  Sorry, this isn’t really my area, I prefer talking about the floor plans of good houses and bad flats.

2.2 Residential Mix

Mix of Dwelling Sizes

They start out here talking about the over supply of 1 and 2 bed flats, then move on to what is undoubtedly an important topic in my view which is how to incorporate children into flats by including private outdoor space.  Single aspect flats with so called Juliet balconies are certainly not suitable for families with children in my view because there is no amenity space for the children, and as they grow the problems will worsen.

The wish to provide a range of dwelling sizes is admirable providing that they bear in mind the experiences of Alice Coleman when researching the effects of a high proportion of teenage children in a block of flats and the trouble it can lead to.  She quotes a figure of 16% maximum (children per adult) in her book “Utopia on trial” and certainly I think some heed needs to be paid to the results of that research however one might disagree with some of her other findings.

Mix of Tenure

I love this one.  How often have you heard it said that in order to free up badly needed council flats, the better off on a council estate should be obliged to move out to make way for a family or young couple in greater need?  This idea has been vigorously refuted by both Karen Buck MP and Nicky Gavron AM at the GLA who both make the point that in order to achieve mixed tenure on an estate you need to keep the people doing well, not throw them out.  So I regard this section of the LHDG as a breath of fresh air if it leads to written confirmation of the above common sense from these two stalwarts of social housing.

“The design of buildings and spaces should be ‘tenure blind’ whereby homes for affordable rent, intermediate forms of tenure and private sale are indistinguishable from one another in terms of design quality, appearance or location within a site.”

Really?  Tell that to the poor sods living in Woods House on Grosvenor Waterside in Pimlico, stuck next to a noisy railway and perspiring in the heat of their poorly ventilated single aspect flats next door to an almost identical block built with air conditioning because it is private. Roll on the date for mandatory legislation on this one Boris and let’s see it in action.  It is already too late for some, I’m sorry to say.