One Tower Bridge social housing tenants denied access to garden

Social housing tenants on a new development next to Tower bridge in London will not be able to access a communal garden, after the local council agreed changes to planning permission in a move reminiscent of the row over buildings that have different doors for tenants, depending on their income and status.

The One Tower Bridge development, which stands between the landmark and the mayor’s City Hall offices, includes a block of affordable homes, which will be ready later this year, alongside eight blocks of luxury apartments costing between £1.45m and £15m.

In the initial planning applications agreed in 2011, it was stated that the residents of the social housing block managed by the corporation of London would be able to use a raised podium garden on the site.

In its marketing brochure for the flats the developer, Berkeley Homes, describes “an appealing private courtyard garden, consisting of three individually designed areas, each characterised by its own unique water feature, including a dancing fountain, lily pond and stone bubbler fountain.”

It continues: “The garden is planted with a variety of shrubs and trees including hornbeam, magnolia and multi-stem pine. Granite seating looks onto a formal lawn and lavender has been planted to enhance the tranquil atmosphere.”

In an application to have the agreement changed, however, Berkeley told planners at Southwark council that providing access to this garden would push up social tenants’ service charges to unaffordable levels.

The firm said that the service charge for the tenants was already high compared with other schemes, and the costs of maintaining the garden would increase it by around 20%. It added that a further charge would also have to be levied to cover the cost of issuing access fobs, cleaning common means of access and other maintenance. Southwark council approved the change, in a decision first reported by the community website London SE1.

In a statement to the Guardian, Berkeley said: “Every affordable home on this site enjoys two substantial rooftop communal gardens with amazing views over the river Thames, Tower of London and Tower Bridge; and we are very proud that One Tower Bridge is genuinely tenure blind in terms of architecture, quality of materials, space standards and amenities.

“The proposed amendments to the legal agreement are sensible and practical. They positively benefit people living in the affordable homes by making those homes more affordable to live in.”

Residents of the 43 affordable homes will still have access to a children’s play area, another outdoor space, the public Potters Field park and a communal area on the roof of their block. Planners at the council said: “Given the considerable amount of communal space provision that would still be accessible and convenient to the [corporation of London] residents, officers consider that these residents would not be disadvantaged by the proposed restriction of the podium garden and the scheme would continue to meet the policy objectives of securing tenure blind development.”

Developers are typically obliged to provide affordable housing on site in order to get council planning permission for new homes. The accommodation tends to be in separate blocks and have different facilities to keep costs down for the housing associations that run it. As expectations and service charges rise on luxury developments, there seems to be an increasing divide between what is on offer to tenants.

Purchasers of the open-market homes at One Tower Bridge are promised “five-star living” and many will enjoy views of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge from their flats. Their service charge is expected to be just over twice as much per square foot as that paid by the social housing tenants, and will add up to many thousands of pounds a year on the largest flats. For their money they will get access to a spa, gym and indoor golf simulator and the services of a Harrods concierge 24 hours a day.

Berkeley’s statement said: “The corporation of London had previously expressed concerns about the maintenance costs associated with their own communal roof gardens as well as the level of their service charge. These issues are exacerbated by access to the semi-private podium garden, which brings with it a separate additional service charge that pays for management and maintenance of the garden, fob access through one of the private blocks and maintenance of the access areas.

“Changing the access arrangements for corporation of London residents to the podium garden now means they will not have to pay a higher service charge. It also has no significant impact on the level of amenity they enjoy. This is for two reasons: firstly, there are no facilities, such as children’s play equipment, within the podium garden to benefit from; and secondly, the corporation of London residents still benefit from a very large amount of their own communal space, which is more than three times the minimum policy requirement.

The service charges for Horace Jones House, which will include heating and water bills, will start at £1,506 a year on some of the one-bedroom flats, going up to £3,251 a year on some of the three-bedroom apartments. Rents on the properties start at £138 a week, rising to £162.

Darren Johnson, a Green party London assembly member, said councils should not let the interests of rich investors trump the needs of the majority. “We cannot solve our housing crisis by building more of these sorts of homes, which deny people on average incomes access to a garden or force them to use a shabby back door to get into their home. It’s a growing problem that the mayor and government also need to get to grips with.”

A spokesperson for the corporation of London said the organisation was aware of the change and “it is something we are looking into with our counterparts at Southwark”.

London SE1 quoted Lib Dem councillor Adele Morris as saying: “To the outsider this could look asif this is the private residents are being a bit snooty and saying ‘we don’t really want the corporation of London tenants using our space’.”