These Londoners were promised millions for affordable homes. 10 years later, they’re still waiting

Nazifa, 22, has lived in the same area East London her whole life. But since graduating from university last year, she’s been worried about being priced out of the city altogether.

“When I talk to my peers, we’re always talking about how it’s impossible to move out and actually own affordable housing,” she told Big Issue. “Being able to stay in Shadwell is really important to me.”

Shadwell is one of the most deprived areas in England, with more than two-thirds of children living in low-income households. “Because a lot of us come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, having a community is really vital,” said Nazifa. “I still want to help support my parents. I can’t do the work I do if I’m five bajillion miles away because I can’t afford a house.”

That’s why she started campaigning alongside London Citizens to build permanently affordable community housing on her very own road, Cable Street. But, a decade after the campaign began, “not a single brick” has been laid.

“It feels like there’s so much bureaucratic red tape,” said Nazifa. “It’s really, really frustrating. Surely there has to be better ways than whatever’s going on right now.”

Despite funding from the London mayor, the housing is still yet to be built

Back in 2018, London Community Land Trust (CLT) won a bid to turn a disused Transport for London (TfL) site into 41 community-owned homes, as well as a green space and a community room.

Then in 2020, the project was granted £1 million from London mayor Sadiq Khan’s Community Housing Fund, with a further £7 million promised.

But last year, TfL paused the project, saying that it requires the land for maintenance of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). If the plan proceeds, TfL estimates that it would need to spend £500,000 a year in additional maintenance costs.

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Since the land transfer was paused by TfL, the rest of the funding from the mayor is no longer available. Without it, the much-needed affordable housing will never be built.

“This is symptomatic of the delays and costs too often created by public bodies selling land to CLTs. We rarely see these problems in private land deals,” said Tom Chance, chief executive of the CLT network.

“Community-led developers like London CLT can’t expect to grow and reach their potential, and escape reliance on grant support, if every project hits these issues.”

Other community housing projects across the country are experiencing similar roadblocks

London isn’t the only city where community housing plans are threatening to fall through.

In Birmingham, a community-led housing group, Stirchley Co-operative Development (SCD) is working to provide 39 affordable homes to help “combat the housing crisis”. Housing association GreenSquareAccord (GSA), which owns the land, previously agreed to transfer it to SCD to make this happen.

However, earlier this year, GSA announced that it would retain ownership due to a £1.16m shortfall which, as a not-for-profit housing association, it said it would be “irresponsible” to absorb.

SCD strongly criticised the deicison, saying it “represents a large institution taking control of a project created through community labour and public support”.

Communities are continuing to fight for affordable housing

Community-led groups argue that genuinely affordable homes tackle the high cost of living, foster community and keep neighborhoods inclusive. Davina Bacon, community organiser at St George-in-the-East Church in Shadwell, has not given up hope that the CLT project will pull through.

She said: “This campaign is testament to the community spirit here in Shadwell. Leaders from across Tower Hamlets have poured so much into making these homes a reality. These are people with skin in the game, who know the urgent need for permanently and genuinely affordable homes in this borough.

“Though there have been points where we have felt disheartened by the bureaucratic hurdles – that continued to emerge despite the mayor’s commitments to London Citizens and £1 million of public money spent on the community-led designs – we remain hopeful that with decisive leadership from the GLA and our continued efforts, we will see this through.

“As one local leader said to me, we’ve been going for 10 years, we’ll go another 10 if we have to. That’s how much this project means to us.”

Steven Wilkinson, TfL’s head of property services, said: “We are supportive of the proposed affordable housing development on our land at Cable Street and recognise the positive contribution it would make to the local community by delivering much-needed affordable housing in the area.

“Cable Street is a key operational site for the DLR to maintain its infrastructure, so we and our colleagues at Places for London are working with London CLT to find the most appropriate way forward to deliver these homes within appropriate GLA funding programmes while also ensuring the DLR can continue to maintain the network effectively.”

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