Forum topic: London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

In the last few days both the Mayor of London and Enfield Council have published new strategy documents relating to tackling problems with the availability and affordability of housing within their respective geographical areas of responsibility.

The Mayor has published a "blueprint report" which sets out his vision for reforming London's private rented sector. Enfield Council is bundling together two draft strategies for consultation under the overall titleThe right home for everyone - a draft Strategy for Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping and a draft Strategy for Housing and Growth.

Building more homes and better homes in Enfield

The proposed strategy for housing and growth is summarised in this infographic.

Five guiding principles are listed:

• Affordable to Enfield residents
  This means creating developments where different people on different incomes can live
• Health promoting
  This means helping people to eat well, be smoke free, physically active, emotionally well and live in thermal comfort
• Digitally connected
  This means creating homes that will be fit for future technology, like providing Fibre-to-the-premises and smart homes/meters that help people with disabilities or health conditions
• Child, age and disability friendly
  This means providing safe outside play provision, helping all residents to stay safe in their communities and when out and about and providing places where people can meet socially
• Environmentally sustainable
  This means using renewable heat sources, creating safe travel routes by foot and bicycle, creating community gardens and green spaces and promoting recycling and reusing

Tackling homelessness in Enfield

The background to the draft strategy to decrease homelessness and rough sleeping in Enfield includes the following:

• Homelessness has increased in Enfield by 250% since 2011/12 – Homelessness levels in Enfield are higher than London and national averages
• In Enfield, there are almost 3,500 households in Temporary Accommodation
• Private Rented Sector rents have increased by 37% since 2011
• Eviction from the Private Rented Sector is the biggest cause of
  homelessness in Enfield
• Rough sleeping in Enfield has increased significantly in recent years
• In 2018/19, Enfield spent over £66m on the Temporary Accommodation service, with a net cost to the local authority of £7m.

 The main points of the draft strategy are shown in the figure below: