T h e L o n d o n B o r o u g h o f H a r r o w
Harrow is an Outer London Borough, covering 20 square miles, in North West London. The area, which is located 10 miles from central London, developed as a dormitory commuter suburb in the late 19th century when the Metropolitan Railway, London’s first underground line, connected the area to the inner city (Bowlt, 2000). Although Harrow is classified as a Metropolitan Centre in the London Plan and has a vibrant shopping and office centre (ibid: 7), only a small proportion of land is devoted to employment and industry and 60 per cent of workers who live in Harrow commute out of the borough to work (ibid). An estimated 239,056 people live in Harrow, and the population has been rising steadily over the past 25 years (ONS, 2011a; Harrow Council, 2012).
Harrow’s reputation as a ‘prosperous, green and leafy suburb’ is supported by the fact that the Green Belt covers nearly a fifth of the borough’s total area, and that at the borough level Harrow appears to be very affluent (Harrow Council, 2012: 4). At the last census unemployment levels were 4.5 per cent compared to 5.2 per cent across London (ONS, 2011a). The population is well qualified with 37 per cent of residents aged 16 and over holding a degree level qualification or equivalent7 and 35 per cent of employed residents working in managerial and professional jobs (ONS, 2013f; 2013g). At ward level things are more stratified, the North and West of the Borough are least deprived (DCLG, 2011b). In the South West and South Central part of the borough there are ‘areas of significant poverty, deprivation and acute housing need’ (Harrow Council, 2012: 4).
H o u s i n g i s s u e s
Harrow’s popularity as a residential suburb combined with limited scope for development has meant that housing availability and affordability across all tenures is a pressing issue (Harrow 2007: 3). According to the most recent Census only 6.1 per cent of Harrow’s dwellings are council properties, 4.5 per cent are housing association, 33.3 per cent are rented privately and 65.3 per cent are privately owned (ONS, 2011b).
Levels of home ownership are higher than the national (63.3 per cent) and
7. Level 4 and above qualifications cover: Degree (BA, BSc), Higher Degree (MA, PhD, PGCE), NVQ Level 4-5, HNC, HND, RSA Higher Diploma, BTEC Higher level, Professional Qualifications (Teaching, Nursing, Accountancy) (Office for National Statistics, 2011f).
London rates (48.3 per cent) (ONS, 2011b). However, between 2001 and 2011 home ownership rates fell by 9.9 per cent in the Borough and there was a 13.6 per cent fall in households buying without a mortgage (ONS, 2004b; 2011b).
According to Land Registry data house prices rose from a median of £165,000 in 2001 to £293,500 in 2011 (DCLG, 2014a). Whilst shared ownership rose by 15.3 per cent this only represents the addition of 109 units (ONS, 2011b). Harrow’s largest tenure change was in the private rented sector - the number of
households living in private rented accommodation more than doubled in ten years. In 2011 18324 households rented privately in the Borough (33.3 per cent) compared with 9179 (15.4 per cent) in 2001 (ONS, 2004b; 2011b). Between 2001 and 2011 only 125 more households rented from the council and housing
associations and the sector declined overall by 1 per cent (ONS, 2004b; 2011b).
Over the years council stock numbers have declined in Harrow, partly due to stock-transfers to registered social landlords, but also due to Right to Buy sales which according to Harrow Council have also had detrimental effect on the supply of family homes (Harrow, 2007: 12).
According to Harrow council in 2007, 12.1 per cent of the households lived in unsuitable housing primarily due to overcrowding, mobility or health problems (Harrow, 2007: 14). In recent years there has also been an increase in
homelessness, and as of 31 March 2007 there were 1058 households in temporary accommodation (Harrow Council 2008: 13). According to Harrow Council, there is a lack of resources to meet the demands of vulnerable households, let alone those deemed as non-vulnerable households but who are nonetheless unable to buy a home and are unhappy with the insecurity and highly inflated prices in the private rented sector (ibid). In 2008, the minimum weekly rent for a
one-bedroom property in the private sector was 58 per cent higher than the same sized property in the social sector (ibid: 25).
L o w c o s t h o m e o w n e r s h i p i n i t i a t i v e s
The first Low Cost Home Ownership schemes were developed in the Borough during the 1980s. At this time, the Conservative-run Council committed to making ‘opportunities available for tenants to transfer to the private sector particularly on shared or other low-cost ownership terms’ (Harrow Council, 1989: 5). The most successful of all the Low Cost Home Ownership initiatives was Right-to-Buy sales and as early as 1987 1541 properties had been sold this
way (ibid). In the 1980s the Council provided several sites for shared ownership schemes and funded Do-it-Yourself Shared Ownership.8 However, the scheme was discontinued in April 1990 due to the ‘declining capital programme’
combined with poor economic conditions in 1992/3 which meant that housing associations were not able to make full use of the Housing Corporation
allocations for shared ownership (Harrow Council, 1994: 3-4). Despite these setbacks shared ownership continued to be part of the Council’s strategy to provide affordable homes to people in the borough, ‘whether or not they are in priority need, as part of a balanced programme of provision’ (ibid: 4). According to their most recent Housing Strategy shared ownership sits alongside other intermediate housing products as a way to help people who cannot afford to buy on the open market, with a particular focus on public sector tenants and key workers (Harrow Council, 2007). Despite this, sales to priority groups have remained low with only 3 public sector tenants and 4 key workers completing sales in 2010/11 (Harrow Council, 2011). Although there is considerable interest for shared ownership from key worker and non-key worker groups the
translation into actual sales remains low.9
8. Do-it-Yourself Shared Ownership worked in the same way as shared ownership except that applicants found themselves a home to buy on the open market which they purchase alongside a housing association. See Chapter 3, Section 3.4 for a fuller discussion of this scheme.
9. It is interesting to note how few applications transfer into completions. In 2010/11 2091 applications were logged for the New Build HomeBuy scheme, 1555 were approved but only 34 completed (Harrow Council, 2011).