10,000 signatures reached
To: Robert Evans and Roger Madelin CBE, Argent
Argent, stick to your promises on Kings Cross Social housing!
Argent, as developers of the huge Kings Cross Central area, are trying to cut the amount of social housing provided and build even more homes that are vastly unaffordable to local residents. With a housing crisis on their doorstep, we are asking Argent to provide the extra funding needed for the social housing they promised, which local people desperately need.
Why is this important?
When planning permission was agreed in 2006, the levels of affordable and social housing on the vast Kings Cross Central site in Camden and Islington were not high enough.
The agreed numbers of social-rented and other “affordable” homes in the plan only added up to 40%, a great disappointment to local communities who had fought for at least the 50% target set by Camden’s own Plan and by the Mayor’s London Plan.
Now the developers are forcing the councils to accept an even lower amount - just 33% - claiming they can't afford to subsidise housing associations to buy the homes after government grants for social housing were reduced.
But as recently as autumn 2014, Argent’s Robert Evans introduced a report by the Centre for London saying proudly: “Argent makes places for people. … Our current largest project is the redevelopment of King’s Cross, where we are delivering 2,000 new homes; 40% of the residential is classed as affordable in tenure.…"
We are calling on Argent to stick to their original promises and top up the subsidies for the missing social housing themselves, so that our communities get the homes they were promised.
Kings Cross is surrounded by some of the most overcrowded families in London, and Camden Council has more than 25,000 households on its housing waiting list. Other community facilities including a nursing home have also been removed from the legal agreement governing the site, and the savings made, along with extra profits from the recently increased overall amount of housing, could easily pay for the homes we need.
We can't afford to let big developers back out of their agreements and so we are asking Argent and their Kings Cross Central Partnership to keep to their word.
The agreed numbers of social-rented and other “affordable” homes in the plan only added up to 40%, a great disappointment to local communities who had fought for at least the 50% target set by Camden’s own Plan and by the Mayor’s London Plan.
Now the developers are forcing the councils to accept an even lower amount - just 33% - claiming they can't afford to subsidise housing associations to buy the homes after government grants for social housing were reduced.
But as recently as autumn 2014, Argent’s Robert Evans introduced a report by the Centre for London saying proudly: “Argent makes places for people. … Our current largest project is the redevelopment of King’s Cross, where we are delivering 2,000 new homes; 40% of the residential is classed as affordable in tenure.…"
We are calling on Argent to stick to their original promises and top up the subsidies for the missing social housing themselves, so that our communities get the homes they were promised.
Kings Cross is surrounded by some of the most overcrowded families in London, and Camden Council has more than 25,000 households on its housing waiting list. Other community facilities including a nursing home have also been removed from the legal agreement governing the site, and the savings made, along with extra profits from the recently increased overall amount of housing, could easily pay for the homes we need.
We can't afford to let big developers back out of their agreements and so we are asking Argent and their Kings Cross Central Partnership to keep to their word.
How it will be delivered
We will deliver the signatures in person to Argent's headquarters.
