The council’s shared ownership housing has been criticised as “not affordable and not good quality housing” by Zoë Garbett, the Green Party candidate for London Mayor.
Garbett, the councillor for Dalston, proposed scrapping the current model, whereby tenants buy a share of a property while still paying rent for the unowned share, and instead making sure that “100% of housing on council land is council owned”.
Average property prices in Hackney have more than tripled in the last 20 years, rising from £202,785 in December 2003 to £621,127 in December 2023, according to Land Registry data.
Despite this, there are currently 13,000 families on the waiting list for social housing in Hackney, with 3,000 of those living in temporary accommodation.
Speaking to students at City, University of London, Garbett also said she wanted to freeze rent costs for two years across the capital, while setting up a renters charter to lower prices, “led by renters, which pushes a just deal.”
The latest ONS figures show that Hackney has the lowest rate of owner-occupied properties of any local authority in England.
Some 72% of Hackney’s accommodation is rented, with 32% of this done through private contractors, and 40% through social housing.
To combat the housing crisis, Garbett also said she was considering ‘a visitor-levy model’ for tourists staying in holiday let accommodation.
She said she supported a ‘Fairbnb’ style system of redirecting around 20% of rent back into community projects in Hackney but refused to advocate for this across the whole of London.
Zoe Garbett said:
“Airbnb is a model which takes housing out of the local stock, but doesn’t contribute anything to the local area.”
There are currently 2,200 holiday rentals in Hackney registered on Airbnb alone.
As part of the recent Spring Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt abolished tax breaks for furnished holiday lets.
