Enfield has a serious and growing housing crisis that the Labour administration is doing little to tackle.
- The council is failing to meet its own planning policies - it is not delivering housing that local people can afford.
- Enfield Green Party believes that the administration’s policy choices are currently tilted in favour of developers and property investors rather than local residents
Enfield has an above-average need for social rent homes, but a below-average rate of building them.
- Despite having greater need for social housing than most other outer London boroughs - because of the level of poverty in Enfield - we have been one of the worst performers in building new social rent housing.
Enfield's shameful record on homelessness
We have one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, and one of the highest usages of temporary accommodation. Around 5000 Enfield children are living in temporary accommodation - a shameful statistic.
- The huge shortfall in affordable housing has resulted in around 3,500 households living in temporary accommodation in Enfield. In 2018/19 the council spent more than £66m on temporary accommodation.
- Temporary accommodation is hugely expensive and represents a massive transfer of public funds to private landlords without providing families with the living conditions and stability they need
- People who cannot afford adequate housing suffer from poor health and reduced life chances
- Many of them face a stark choice: between moving away from Enfield – away from work, family, and community support networks - or living in unaffordable, unsuitable, unhealthy, or precarious housing conditions.
Enfield Green Party recognises that much of the blame for this situation lies with governments that have been in power since the 1980s, but there is still much that the council could do but isn't.
- According to the council's own assessment, Enfield needs to build between 2,111 and 3,493 new affordable homes per year.
- At least two-thirds of these affordable homes will need to be Social Rent/Affordable Rent.
- Yet over the last ten years, and especially since 2018, the amount of social rent housing in the borough has actually fallen.
Enfield Green Party is calling on the government to provide additional funding to build the types of housing Enfield needs. And for Enfield Council to carry out its own policies on housing, rather than give in to pressure from developers.
