New Costa?

yagamuffin · May 2012

No mention of TFL in that statement. Have the station regeneration plans been completely scrapped now?

Arkady · May 2012

Splendid news, I’d missed that. I think the deadline to start is in early 2013, so they need to get a move on.<br><br>Four Eyes will be sad.<br><br>I can’t recall what arrangement is on this scheme for contributions to the public realm, or whether TFL are getting a cut directly. The scheme includes *provision* for a new western entrance to the station, but actual delivery of the entrance is not funded.<br><br>TFL put the expensive parts of the FP redevelopment on hold (i.e. the new Wells Terrace entrance and re-opening the abandoned tunnels, stairs & lifts, as well as the new western entrance) but maybe this project will act as a spur. Fingers crossed.<br>

yagamuffin · May 2012

"<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">abandoned tunnels, stairs & lifts" I'm intrigued, where are these?</span><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></span></div>

Idoru · May 2012

I would love a tour of the disused tunnels of the Underground. Back when I worked on London Planner I suggested an article to TfL and the press person said no because terrorists might use the information. Since then several people have written such articles

<br>

Arkady · May 2012

@Idoru: have you been down to old Aldwych station?<br><br>@yagamuffin: this leaflet explains all: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/finsbury-park-brochure.pdf<br><br>The only part of this that received funding was the interior decoration of the existing passages.<br><br>The labelled 'new passageway' already exists in a ruinous state. Occasionally they have the door open when you head for the overland train.<br>

Arkady · May 2012

@ADGS: One of the two pubs called The Railway in Dalston is excellent. The other one is true to form.<br>

ActionVerb · May 2012

13% affordable housing in that FP station development, which makes me a bit sad. <div><br></div><div>Now that a developer has been appointed, I think we'll now see another planning application to make changes to the approved scheme, to engineer out some of the more interesting elements to cut costs.</div>

yagamuffin · May 2012

13% too much or too little?<div><br></div><div>Not wanting to go too far off topic (considering this was about the new Costa!) I would personally be happy to see no affordable housing. All the politicians keep going on about needing more affordable housing but I think this is wrong. We are suffering a housing crisis, it's not just the poor that need more homes, the whole market needs an injection of available properties. We just need more homes full stop and hopefully this development will go some way to providing this for the wider FP area.</div>

poxy · May 2012

More homes? What about fewer people?

yagamuffin · May 2012

The number of people isn't the problem. Leaving home before marriage and living alone and then getting divorced and living alone again is!

gardener-joe · May 2012

hahahaha ...

ActionVerb · May 2012

@yagamuffin Personally I think 13% is too little. There is a shortage of housing, but there's as much shortage of affordable housing as normal, market rate housing, if not more, and this may be my old socialist university making an appearance, but people in affordable housing would generally have a greater need of housing, be it Council tenants or 'key workers'. The debate that some people/groups should not qualify for affordable housing is a different one.<div><br></div><div>I've been priced out of buying anywhere reasonable in London, certainly places like SGR are but a pipedream, and I can see myself rent for another 5-10 years, but that doesn't particularly bother me, as I don't have a pressing need to buy a property. <br><div><br></div></div>

yagamuffin · May 2012

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Well no one needs to buy a property it's something some of us would choose to do. Sadly with demand outstripping supply to the extent it is buying a home is something I will not be able to do for many years to come.</font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">I just think that if the supply was increased to match if not exceed the demand then prices would fall (Capitalism 101). This would then make housing more affordable for all.</div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Just because I don't work for the Emergency Services or live off the state doesn't mean I am any less deserving when it comes to having the opportunity to buy a house.</font></div>

Arkady · May 2012

I have mixed feelings about this issue.<br><br>On one hand it is crucial that people can afford to have a roof over their head. I think we can safely regard that as a *right*. But how best to ensure this?<br><br>As we’ve touched on here before, part of the issue is the renter/buyer tension. On the continent nearly everyone rents, and expects to do so indefinitely, where as here most people have traditionally been property owners. In the UK, property-ownership was reinforced by right-to-buy. But since then the explosion of second home ownership and buy-to let, along with a slow-down in new home building, many have been priced out of the buying market. Those are the two things that need to be tackled. That and stopping the population growing!<br><br>Affordable housing allocations within developments – either a percentage of flats within a building or a percentage of structures within a wider development – is better than the council ghettos that they often replace. They maintain a broader social mix, which is a much better environment for children to be socialised in.<br><br>But I’m uncomfortable about is specifically building houses for the poor. Affordable housing is a euphemism for low-quality housing. Better to build lots of housing of a high quality (like the Victorians did) and keep prices down as a result. In London we ought to be building – as we have increasingly been – high quality, high density and high-rise housing in regeneration areas such as Finsbury Park and Kings Cross. These apartments will be taken up by young professionals and students, taking pressure of the Victorian stock housing which ought to be family homes rather than sub-divided into flats.<br>

yagamuffin · May 2012

How does the European model work? I often hear people saying that most people on mainland Europe rent rather than buy but who actually owns the properties? Is this for all areas or just the densely populated urban areas?

Arkady · May 2012

Pass.

Morefit · May 2012

The people who are doing the Finsbury Park Redevelopment are our landlords. All the planning permission and contractors have been set and notice have been given to the business effected within the City North site.<div><br></div><div>The new development will have 400 flats and 120,000sq ft commercial so expect to see all the high street shops there. </div><div><br></div><div>There is also word of a new entrance from the site straight into the station</div><div><br></div><div>So the whole place is going to look completely different.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Arkady · May 2012

Good for business, I’d have thought Mr Morefit.<br><br>Except that word is your whole block will be demolished and redeveloped too once City North is finished (I’d expect to see plans go in *before* it’s finished) so you may need to find new premises.<br>

Morefit · May 2012

We're already expanding<div>We're already in Piccadilly and now are looking at sites in Wardour Street and Baker Street</div><div><br></div><div>Our block is ear marked for redevelopment in 2018 but it seems that we are a long away from any of those plans being put though... They want to build 2 big towers where our block is. </div><div><br></div><div>The block we're in lets face is is horrible... No one wants to be evicted but we've taken the lease knowing that one day we'll probably we kicked out...</div><div><br></div><div>We"re ready</div><div>Mr Morefit is ready</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe there will be Starbucks and Costa everywhere by then</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

rainbow_carnage · May 2012

I have a problem with the whole affordable (discounted) housing for key workers concept. The average salary in London is less than £35k. That's nowhere near enough to buy a flat. Nor is it enough to comfortably rent. The majority of Londoners cannot really afford to live in the city where they work.<br><br>I think nurses and teachers are important, but so are administrators, waiters and cleaners. Why should a teacher earning £38k get a discounted flat while a cleaner earning £6.08 an hour have to share a room with three others just to keep a roof over his head?<br>

andy · May 2012

<p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">@yagamuffin<;/p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">UK has high ownership and lots of people with variable rate mortgages and not much equity. Makes us vv sensitive to interest rate changes in a way the german economy isn't.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">first number: average LTV</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">second number: % with variable rate mortgage</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">third number: % home ownership</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">fourth number" average household size</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">UK <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>70 75 69 2,4</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">ES <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>83 98 82 2,9</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">DE <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>70 10 43 2,1</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">FR <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>66 20 56 2,4</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">NL <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>112 26 54 2,3</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">DK <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>80 25 53 2,2</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">SE <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>95 62 46 1,9</p> <p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="s1">IE <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>65 78 75 2,9</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></p><p class="p2"><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000225635.pdf</font></p>;

andy · May 2012

<div><br></div>and here is the breakdown of home ownership. don't say i never do nothing for you.<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4how07wsC1qgwatgo1_1280.png">

Mirandola · May 2012

I love this website. Back on topic - can anyone find a planning application for the Starbucks? 'Cos I can't.

yagamuffin · May 2012

Cheers @Andy

miss annie · May 2012

I'm not very good with tables and suchlike. Do I deduce that countries where more people own their own homes have more unstable economies?

andy · May 2012

If you have variable rate mortgage, then if the interest rate goes up, your mortgage rate goes up, you feel it in your pocket next month.<div><br></div><div>If you rent, and the interest rate goes up, you don't notice it.</div>

miss annie · May 2012

Unless you rent from someone who has bought the property purely to rent it out, in which case a rent hike is on the cards.

harpistic · May 2012

My lease specifies that my rent will rise each year in line with any interest increases. That's the first time I've come across that clause, though. <br>

gardener-joe · May 2012

How does affordable housing remain affordable once the initial buyer sells? Surely, at that point the market kicks in and the affordability is squeezed out, so no longterm improvement.

Arkady · May 2012

@Morefit: Congrats on your success and expansion, that's very cool.<br><br>Do you know any more about the redevelopment plan, have you seen designs?<br>

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

New Costa?

Comments