What is a housing crisis for most of us is a bonanza for a few, with all manner of profiteering enterprises taking advantage. Goldcrest Land is a fine example of speculating to accumulate in the name of ‘redevelopment’ and ‘regeneration’.
Goldcrest recently purchased from Camden Council a small piece of land in Malden Road, London NW5, which had previously been an outdoor basketball court used by people from the adjoining council estate. It announced plans to use the land to build ’22 high quality new homes… aimed at younger professional people’. There was not even any pretence of these homes being ‘affordable’ by the hundreds of young people in the area who cannot afford to buy or rent.
Goldcrest Land’s website boasts that the company specialises in buying land without planning permission, as it can get it at a much better price. Indeed the website boasts that ‘Goldcrest typically targets sites where perceived problems exist – such as planning, conveyance, contamination, technical challenges, railway tunnels, squatters – all of which drives the initial purchase price down and keeps competition at bay.’
Although a council which sells off its assets to a company like Goldcrest Land is not going to stand in the way of planning permission for such sites there needs to be a veneer of ‘consultation’. Enter ‘Your Shout’ (strapline ‘Engage, Listen, Learn’) – another private enterprise, specialising in ‘professional community consultation for the built environment… for developers, local authorities and other clients who wish to contact, consult and listen to people in a specific community, neighbourhood or area… committed to strengthening relationships between land owners, communities and local councillors.’
Your Shout is not an independent company but the more touchy-feely, community acceptable face of Thorncliffe, a professional lobbying outfit which boasts a 94% success rate in getting planning applications through. To achieve this, it employs former local councillors, as they are ‘in tune with how to help developers meet the needs and desires of the communities they serve’. Not content with this, Thorncliffe also recruits serving councillors to act as ‘consultants’.
Nicki Simons
