As part of the seminar series hosted by LSE London and Progressing Planning, we invited David Joyce for a session under the title “Let’s Talk Haringey.” David has spent 20 years working in the London boroughs, specifically Camden and Lambeth. He oversaw the implementation of the King’s Cross development, the HS2 at Euston, and regeneration schemes along the South Bank, which set him up for his current role as the Director of Placemaking and Housing in Haringey’s Council.
Haringey, a borough of North London, boasts a population of more than 270,000 people. However, the borough has also historically struggled with providing sufficient services to its residents, particularly affordable housing. These inequities have also followed a consistent East-West divide, and have been exacerbated under the pressure of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In light of these concerns, the Council has undergone extensive changes, largely rooted in an ideological shift in the political administration in recent borough elections. These shifts have been most clear in a movement away from a former reliance on private sector development and ALMO management systems in order to meet housing demands; instead, the borough is in the process of returning social housing development and management to the council. The new administration’s manifesto has also promoted a focus on the “Haringey Deal,” a movement to collaborative planning practices which engage both the local authority and local communities.
One of Haringey’s primary objectives has been to establish a new generation of council homes in order to increase accessibility and quality to affordable housing throughout the borough. The return of development and management of these estates from private developers and ALMOs to the Haringey Council has opened an opportunity to directly pursue the Council’s housing goals. This has included both the redevelopment of older estates as well as newer builds. For example, the Broadwater Farm regeneration project was pursued after many of the panelled buildings were ruled as unsafe. Meanwhile, areas such as Hale Wharf, Cranwood, and Ashley Road Depot are undergoing new housing developments. The two largest growth targets in the borough are currently Tottenham Hale, most notably home to the Tottenham Spurs Stadium, and High Road West, which has consistently struggled with overcrowding. These two projects alone are estimated to create more than 3,000 new homes.
Haringey’s Wood Green is classified as a ‘metropolitan’ centre in the London Plan, which Haringey council believes has untapped potential. The Haringey Heartlands in Wood Green is an urban regeneration project that was drafted after a series of public consultations between 2003-2005, with the main aim being “to create a vibrant and attractive new urban quarter which acts as the civic and cultural Heart of Haringey”. The town centre has several areas of opportunity that the council identified, for example, it hosts creative pockets and an array of cultural industries, including workspaces for artists and creative practitioners, vegan cheese production, and a community brewery taproom.
To continue harnessing the community’s strengths, local residents are an ever-present element in any improvement plans of Haringey. For instance, the historic area of the Seven Sisters which had been acquired by Grainger Property, was destined for demolition and redevelopment. This was contested by local people and the scheme has now been abandoned as unviable. This provided an opportunity, making way for a new community and council-led plan that has secured funds from Historic England to improve the area and harness its heritage character.
To plan for further improvement and regeneration, Haringey council has found that traditional online consultation did not have the desired reach, with specific underrepresentation of Bulgarian, Somali, and Turkish members of the community. Wood Green Voices has been established as part of a wider community outreach initiative that is more inclusive of migrant groups. The initiative featured workshops, drop-in events, alongside online surveys to receive feedback from businesses, workers, residents, and different community groups. Wood Green’s new civic centre, a planned modernist building, is meant to consolidate council services and bridge the gap between the local authority and the community. The provision of a physical space for engagement is meant to increase accessibility and offer a platform for all voices. As David put it, “communities deserve a space to be heard, to be dignified.”
One of the concerns raised by the community has been climate resilience, especially with the increasing costs of energy. The Haringey Council is making an active effort to build a climate resilient borough. This goal comprises building to higher sustainability standards in several approaches. The Council currently has a goal to be net carbon zero by 2041, and they recently introduced their plan to retrofit all council homes in the borough in order to decarbonise them. Additionally, this retrofit will promote significantly higher energy efficiency, both decreasing carbon emissions and household energy costs. Finally, Haringey has also been focused on creating more low traffic neighbourhoods, although these have largely been concentrated in the East of the borough.
Haringey’s urban future is being reimagined by its residents and its council; an urban realm without polarisation and a future where all voices are equally heard. The presentation was concluded with an image of Alexandra Palace, a Grade II listed venue that hosts a theatre, an ice rink, a conference hall, and studios, a prime asset of Haringey that is representative of the potential it has. The floor was then open for a Q&A, which addressed an array of topics such as the definition of “council homes”, the housing considerations for refugees and asylum seekers, and the overarching industrial strategy of Haringey.
