Homes fit for local heroes

Londoners who cannot afford a home of their own live in the shadow of the wealthy world of Canary Wharf. An enterprising priest has devised a way to help them

THERE ARE two worlds in Canning Town in east London. One is summed up by the station ? all steel, glass and concrete with vast deserted spaces, automatic doors and driverless trains on the Docklands Light Railway. The other is a short distance away in Barking Road ? a scruffy high street of little shops with steel shutters and a market. It looks run-down but two buildings stand out ? the Catholic church of St Margaret and further down the road, Community Links ? a project run by the local authority, Newham Council, which is bustling with activity.

Britain?s tallest building, the Canary Wharf tower, is clearly visible looking west from St Margaret?s. It belongs to that other world, one of a small cluster of sparkling skyscrapers with its distinctive pyramid rising above them. From here, it looks like a mirage and could be, for all the difference it has made to the lives of people in Barking Road.

?Historically, the East End has been a prosperous place but the wealth has not come to the people,? says Fr Sean Connolly. ?Canary Wharf is the latest incarnation of that.? It is a part of a familiar pattern for the 39-year-old, who was born in nearby Walthamstow. He was a deacon at St Margaret?s and has been back for the past three years as parish priest. He remembers the era before Canary Wharf was redeveloped, when the shipping business of the Thameside docks and wharves was thriving. In 2012, the Olympic Games may come to east London and his parishioners are not excited about the prospect. ?People are not particularly enthusiastic,? he says. ?They?ve seen the Millennium Dome, Canary Wharf and big business flying in and doing their stuff but they haven?t really benefited very much.?

Fr Connolly is committed to changing all that. His parish is a founding member of The East London Communities Organisation (Telco) which, since it was set up in 1996, has campaigned hard on behalf of local residents to improve the neighbourhood. Telco is a coalition of religious organisations, residents? groups and trade unions, and Catholic churches form its backbone. Fr Connolly has played an active part in its affairs, and in particular he has tried to address the shortage of affordable housing. House prices have rocketed in the areas as the city has edged eastwards and Tube, rail and road links have been improved.

Telco?s proposed solution lies in community land trusts. Under this system, land is given in perpetuity to a trust. Homes are built and the trust sells them to local people. Buyers pay a modest lump sum towards their property and then regular weekly or monthly payments, as with a mortgage. They can sell their homes at any time but according to Fr Connolly the value cannot escalate in the same way as private property. The reason for this is that the trust retains ownership of the land the homes are built on so the vendor is selling the building only.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has plans to build affordable homes for key workers such as teachers and nurses but Fr Connolly is concerned about those semi-skilled and unskilled workers who earn even less.

?The mayor?s plans to build affordable housing are not sustainable in the long term because market values continue to go up and they cease to be affordable housing,? he says. ?Mutual home ownership in community land trusts takes the price of land out of the equation.?

Telco has managed to get a public pledge from Livingstone for a pilot community land trust with 2,000 homes to be built on derelict industrial land in the Lower Lea Valley. The plan is aimed at those earning between ?12,000 and ?30,000 a year ? an income bracket that takes in cleaners, security guards and teaching assistants. These workers too, argues Fr Connolly, need to own their own homes but lenders will only offer mortgages that are four times a buyer?s salary.

?Ownership is important. If people have a stake in their homes, it strengthens communities and makes them stable, ? he says. ?The problem is people can?t afford to live here. They are moving away all the time. One family told me they are moving to Wales next week.?

A look in a local estate agent?s window explains why. A Victorian, two-bedroom, terraced house has just sold for ?190,000; a two-bedroom flat in a former council tower block in Canning Town is offered for ?110,000. At the other end of the scale, there is a similar sized flat for sale in a luxurious block with 24-hour security with a ?325,000 price tag. So-called ?gated? communities are springing up in pockets of east London. These are exclusive housing estates ringed with walls or fences to keep burglars out. Access to the estates is confined to residents and their guests and private security firms are employed to provide further protection. The effect of such developments, according to Telco, is to polarise communities still further.

Then there is the matter of the Olympic bid. The land that would be required for stadia and the Olympic village makes it more complicated to identify a site for the 2,000 homes, but Telco is taking a positive view of what the Games could achieve. A few days before we met, Fr Connolly was part of a delegation that met Lord Coe, who is leading London?s Olympic bid. They asked him to put a clause in the bid promising that a percentage of local people would be involved in the construction work and that everyone should be paid a living wage.

?It should also say the Olympic Village will become affordable housing after the Games. The experience in Sydney was that the village became a very desirable residence which priced ordinary people out,? says Fr Connolly.

What can Telco deliver in return?

?We can mobilise our people to show real enthusiasm when the International Olympic Committee comes next March. We can be there and show that the people of east London support the bid,? he says.

The power of such a demonstration should not be underestimated. It was evident on 4 May when Telco?s parent organisation, London Citizens, brought 1,700 people to Methodist Central Hall in Westminster to put their key demands to the three main candidates for London mayor. As well as the community land trust they asked for a ?living wage? for Londoners of ?6.70 an hour, an annual summer work scheme for young people in London?s poorest boroughs and a promise that the Metropolitan Police would expand its community policing scheme. Without hesitation, all the candidates said yes to them all. The banner-waving, cheering audience was courtesy itself but Fr Connolly says the candidates knew it meant business.

?Politicians all say, ?We want to listen to people?, but often they want to listen on their own terms and filtered in such a way that it leaves them in control. We are saying, ?We want you to work with us?. It is very powerful to see that in action.?

London Citizens has branched out into south London and there are plans to move into the north and west too. But east London with its tradition of community activism is much more fertile ground. Or is it? According to Fr Connolly this tradition is diminishing and he blames the pressures on local families. He tells me of a father of five who works 70 hours a week as a cleaner at Canary Wharf and has a second job as a minicab driver. Then there are families where the father has a night job and the mother goes out to work all day. In these circumstances he argues that people have no time for community or Church.

?We are fighting for our own community. There is plenty of self-interest. There will be no community unless we fight to change the values that are around us,? he says.

?It is very easy for people to be passive and let things be done to them. When we went to see Lord Coe, we were taken to the 2012 room at the very top of Canary Wharf. His team are up there looking down on all of us but so far removed from what is going on here.??

Back in Barking Road I look again towards Canary Wharf and the Barclay?s Bank tower next to it. I was reminded of a moment at that Westminster meeting when a Barclay?s executive had stood on the platform and explained that after a ?constructive dialogue? with Telco his company had agreed to directly employ its cleaners and to pay them the ?living wage?.

?What we have in place makes good commercial sense. We have high-quality and well-trained staff who are committed to cleaning our building well,? he said to thunderous applause.

Perhaps those two worlds could come together after all.