Soho Housing Association is the only housing association that commits itself exclusively to providing affordable housing within the Central London Strategic Area.
 
So why do we choose to work only in this area?
 
We believe housing associations work best when they have strong links with the communities they attempt to serve. To cast our net wider than Central London would be to risk losing this vital sense of connection.
 
Homes and transport
 
Every home built in Central London means at least one less incoming commuter journey. Buses, trains, tubes and the road system are crammed to capacity as hundreds of thousands of people struggle into the centre every morning only to return back home again at the end of each day. We want to encourage more people to live in the centre where they can walk or cycle to work.
 
Homes and the built environment
 
Every home built in the centre means one less greenfield plot under concrete. It is true that many Central Londoners can be housed more cheaply “out of borough” but this is to the long-term detriment of all concerned. The city loses the key-workers which are its lifeblood. Outlying boroughs suffer from increased pressure on land and infrastructure. Meanwhile buildings and sites in the centre of London lie empty and undeveloped.
 
Homes and Employment
 
Nowhere is there a higher concentration of working people priced out of the property market than in Central London. Every day keyworkers are forced by the lack of affordable housing in the centre, to make the long trip to and from the suburbs. This makes stressful low paid work even more of a misery for the workers themselves, and makes recruitment and staff retention far more difficult thus undermining the effectiveness of the services they provide.
 
Homes and the community
 
All over the country millions of pounds of public money are being spent on the regeneration of communities which have affordable homes, sometimes to excess, but which lack jobs, shops, infrastructure. The situation in Central London is precisely the opposite. It has all these things plus thriving communities which have been established for generations.
 
What Central London lacks is affordable housing.
 
For many years we have been told that it is not good value for money to build homes in Central London because the cost of bricks and mortar is so high. But in the long-term which is more cost effective? ..

• .. to attempt to create communities and infrastructure around cheap homes in areas where people do not want to live.
• .. or to build more expensive homes in an area which needs no other form of social investment and where demand for affordable housing is intense and where the social benefits are so clear?

At Soho Housing Association we believe there has never been a stronger case for investment in well-designed, sustainable, affordable housing in the heart of London.
 
The London Housing Federation has published “Leading by example: the role of Housing Associations in regenerating London”. We fully support the urban regeneration recommendations that:

• The Government and the Housing Corporation need to ensure that the level of resources allocated to London is sufficient to meet the increasing demand for additional housing;

 

• The Greater London Authority needs to set a clear policy framework for achieving increased housing development in London, over a range of tenures to create greater choice and access to housing in London and to support London’s economy;

 

• Local authorities, through their planning and housing powers, need to work with housing associations to implement the strategic framework at the local level;

 

• Housing associations need to continue to innovate in their housing developments, offering flexible tenures, high quality, higher density housing, based on high quality design and innovative building techniques.

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