Tonight, the Council’s Development Control Committee supported the call by Richard and Heather – who both spoke to the meeting – to oppose the current planning application for Sutherland House as it contains no provision for affordable housing. They both deplored the fact that the building has been empty and derelict for years, but said this should not drive us to accept a thoroughly objectionable proposal.

Richard quoted the phrase coined by a Conservative Prime Minister of the 1970’s, Edward Heath, no militant socialist, that a particular set of actions he dealt with was “the unacceptable face of capitalism.” He said “What the Committee has before it tonight is exactly that. It is a project that puts profit before people.”

The proposal of the developers is to take an existing large building which, for reasons still obscure, has been empty and derelict for years, and renovate it so there are 160 luxury, private, residential apartments. These will in due course be available to be sold or rented for sums of money most of us would find astonishing, but because Sutton remains a thriving area despite the recession (due to the good management of its affairs by its Council) there will be no shortage of demand.

But the developer claims that the whole project is so financially marginal that they cannot possibly include any affordable housing atall. This seems unlikely, and the Council’s independent study suggests there is £1.91 million of profit in the proposal over and above what one would regard as a normal and acceptable margin. Some affordable housing can be included without the project becoming unviable.

Heather and Richard deal with a lot of casework concerning housing in our Ward. They come across many families, often families with small children, that live in desperately overcrowded conditions. There is a massive need for affordable housing in the Britain of 2013. It is a national problem, it is a problem here in Sutton, and it is a problem in a seemingly affluent area like Sutton South Ward.

Richard said “I do not know why the developer has kept the site empty for so long, as, I am told, it did with the Root and Brown tower in Merton. I deplore the fact that it is an empty and derelict eyesore, a blot on the landscape. Perhaps the expectation was that eventually we would be so fed up with it we would accept anything to get it developed. I am almost at the stage where I would accept anything to get it developed and am at the stage where I would accept almost anything. But not this scheme.”

The Committee agreed to support the proposals of the officers to oppose this proposal at the forthcoming hearing by the Planning Inspectorate and seek some affordable housing provision.