Well, it’s more to do with a complacent attitude within the planning department. Consents are granted with an affordable element included but the council simply backs down when developers say schemes are ‘unviable’ unless the affordable part is reduced or cut altogether. When they say ‘unviable’ they mean their 30 percent profit margins are likely to be less. They crack on with the expensive housing when it suits.Factor in the collapse of dodgy developers like Henry Construction and you get even less affordable housing. That company got a grant of £40m from LBE, despite its financial history being opaque, to say the least. Went bust, with half built dwellings in West Ealing and elsewhere and its taxpayers who pick up the tab.Ealing doesn’t help itself by failing to produce legally required Authority Monitoring Reports every year, none produced for a five or six year spell under Bell and Mason. It means inappropriate development can go ahead, such as the massive John Lewis scheme at Waitrose West Ealing. LBE planning department didn’t even bother trying to deal with that, passing it straight to the Mayor despite massive opposition from local residents.To date there’s been no explanation for the failure to produce the reports. Nobody has resigned or been held accountable. It’s someone’s job to do them, and someone else’s to see that they have been done. FOI requests and direct questions to councillors like Shital Manro have simply been ignored.So much for open, honest and transparent local government.
Simon Hayes ● 42d