Mayor fears only a third Olympic housing is affordable
Dear Ed,THE Labour Mayor of Newham has voiced concern that the 2012 Olympic legacy’ may not fulfil the promises that have been made to East London. He’s quite right. The legacy team’s publications state the true figure is a third
Dear Ed,
THE Labour Mayor of Newham, Robin Wales, has voiced concern that the 2012 Olympic 'legacy' may not fulfil the many promises that have been made to East London. He's quite right.
Members of the legacy team were boasting at a public meeting I attended on November 10 that half the housing built in the Olympic Park will be 'affordable'.
But their publications state the true figure is just over a third (35 per cent), of which only half will be for rent. In other words, only 17 per cent of the new homes will be available for the 80,000 families currently on council waiting lists in the five Olympic boroughs.
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This isn't a legacy-it's an insult. Let's remember that every inch of the Olympic site is owned by the public, bought with �1 billion of public money.
But people in housing need are being told there's no place for them here.
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Instead, the Olympic village will become another enclave of exclusion for those who can afford a luxury apartment.
History is repeating itself. Remember all the promises about the redevelopment of London Docklands? Only a fraction of the new jobs and homes went to local people.
We must not let it happen again. We need support for a Legacy campaign to demand that when it's 100 per cent public land, it must be 100 per cent housing that people can afford to live in. That means council housing.
Glyn Robbins
Moravian Street, Bethnal Green
