“为了在本地兴建新的社会住房，地方议会只能依赖私人开发商在实施大型开发计划时，按一定比例建造用于社会租赁的住房。”伦敦南部一项大胆的举措——将土地分配给社区团体而非私人开发商——有望彻底改变这一现状。位于伦敦东南部的刘易舍姆区议会正在制定宏伟计划，拟将价值数百万英镑的公共土地转交给社区团体，以此推动本地社会住房建设。
‘To get new social housing built in their area, councils are reliant on private developers building a proportion of homes for social rent as part of larger master plans.’A bold south London initiative to give land to community groups rather than private developers could transform the system ewisham council, in southeast London, is developing ambitious plans to transfer millions of pounds’ worth of public land to community groups in an attempt to get new social housing built in the borough.
根据周三召开的议会内阁会议文件，该区议会正在制定新的住房战略，计划向由社区主导的组织（如住房合作社）提供每宗价值最高达200万英镑的公共土地，条件是这些组织必须用于建造社会住房。
According to papers tabled at Wednesday’s council cabinet meeting, the south London local authority is devising a new housing strategy, which includes giving packages of public land worth up to £2m each to community-led organisations such as housing co-operatives, on the condition that they build social housing.
由绿党主导的刘易舍姆区议会还在考虑将通过上述计划分配出去的土地纳入“社区土地信托”这一法律框架中，以确保住房价格长期维持在可负担水平。此外，议会还可能提供低息贷款以助力项目启动，并预先批准相关规划许可以加快施工进程。预计这些举措有望在一年内付诸实施。
The Green-controlled council is further considering placing any land it gives away through the programme into community land trusts legal instruments that lock in permanent affordability. They may also provide low-interest loans to help developments get started, and pre-approve planning permission to speed up construction. It is hoped that the proposals will take effect within a year.
这些措施共同构成了目前各地方当局提出的应对住房危机最为激进的一揽子解决方案。若能在其他地区推广，这一模式不仅有助于刘易舍姆区，更能推动全国范围内的社会住房建设。
Together, they form the most radical suite of solutions to the housing crisis any local authority is currently putting forward. If adopted elsewhere, the approach could transform the construction of social housing not just in Lewisham, but across the entire country.
目前，英国新建住房中四分之三由以盈利为目的的房地产开发商建造；其余住房则主要由住房协会负责建设，由地方议会直接兴建的住房数量少得可怜。
Today three in four new British homes are built by for-profit property developers. The rest are erected predominantly by housing associations, with just a paltry few built by local authorities.
与欧洲其他类似经济体不同，英国几乎没有任何新建住房项目是由社区组织负责建设的。因此，为了在当地建造新的社会住房，地方政府只能依赖私人开发商在大型开发计划中按比例建设用于社会租赁的住房。然而，开发商常常凭借自身强势的议价地位，极力压低实际交付的社会住房数量。
Unlike in comparable European economies almost no new UK homes are being built by community organisations. To get new social housing built in their area, therefore, councils are reliant on private developers building a proportion of homes for social rent as part of larger master plans. But developers frequently use their strong bargaining position to haggle down the amount of social housing they actually deliver.
“实际上，我们能促使私人地产开发商建设的社会住房数量是有限的，”路易沙姆区负责包容性再生、规划及住房建设事务的政务委员丹尼尔·德雷姆说道，“我们必须想出更具创意的办法来建设社会住房。”作为路易沙姆区新住房战略的主要制定者之一，德雷姆指出当前地方政府与开发商讨价还价的机制已然失效，根本无法提供满足需求的足量社会住房。他希望借助公共土地，助力由社区主导的组织自行建设所需的住房——用他的原话来说就是：“让社区有能力建设属于自己的社区。”
“There’s a limit to how much social housing we can realistically get private property developers to build,” says Daniel Dream, cabinet member for inclusive regeneration, planning and housing delivery in Lewisham. “We’ve got to get more creative about how to deliver social housing.”Dream, a key architect of Lewisham’s evolving new strategy, says the current system of councils haggling with developers is broken and will never produce enough social housing to meet need. Instead, he hopes to use public land to empower community-led organisations to build essential housing for themselves, or as he puts it: “enabling community to deliver community”.
即便对于心怀善意的地方政府而言，出售公共土地也是一件棘手之事。根据1972年颁布的法律，公共机构必须接受任何报价，无论出价者有何意图。正因如此，财力雄厚的地产开发商往往能击败社区团体，竞得土地开发权，即便后者有着更具前瞻性、更可持续且社会价值更高的建设规划。例如今年9月，萨默塞特郡议会决定将弗罗姆镇的一块地块出售给总部位于伦敦的投资公司Newcore Capital，而非那些计划在此建造住宅、工作空间、河畔公园及露天泳池的本地社区开发商。
Selling off public land is a fraught business even for well-meaning councils. Under a 1972 law public bodies are obliged to accept the highest price they are offered, regardless of the buyer’s intentions. Wealthy property developers can therefore typically swoop in and outbid community groups for land, even when the community groups have far more interesting, sustainable and socially valuable ambitions. In September, for example, Somerset council voted to sell a site in Frome to the London-based investment firm Newcore Capital rather than to local community developers who had plans to build homes, workspaces, a riverside park and a lido.
不过，1972年的法律也留有一处漏洞：若地方政府拟出售的地块价值在200万英镑或以下，只要此举能为当地带来积极效益，议会便可自行决定出售对象及价格，甚至可以免费转让。
However, the 1972 law has a loophole. If a local authority is selling a site worth £2m or less, the council can choose to sell it to whomever it likes, and at whatever price it pleases, even giving it away for free, provided doing so provides positive benefits for the area.
这一新策略尤其有助于在条件复杂的小地块上推进住房建设。在伦敦，“小地块”被定义为面积不足2,500平方米的土地，大约相当于九个网球场的大小。这类地块规模太小，难以引起大型开发商的兴趣，因此常常处于闲置状态。然而，这些闲置小地块的利用潜力巨大。建筑事务所RCKa估算，仅在伦敦，这些小地块上的可用土地就足以建造85万套新住房。该事务所最近对刘易舍姆区进行了调研，发现该区有超过3,000块潜在的小地块，可用来建设多达9,700套新住宅。
The new strategy could be especially useful in helping support more ambitious housebuilding on tricky small sites. In London a “small site” is defined as a piece of land that is under 2,500 sq metres about the size of nine tennis courts. These plots are too modest for major developers to take an interest in, so often just sit empty. However, the potential to better use vacant small sites is enormous. The architecture practice RCKa estimates there is enough land stuck in small sites to build 850,000 new homes in the capital alone. It recently conducted a survey of Lewisham identifying space for up to 9,700 new homes across more than 3,000 potential small sites.
合理利用这些小地块还能提升住房质量。正如“小地块与伦敦住房”研究项目所显示的那样，与大型开发商在大片土地上建造的千篇一律的高楼相比，规模适中的开发项目往往能建造出质量更高、更能为周边社区带来积极影响的住房。
Improved use of small sites can also create better homes. As the research project Small Sites London shows, modest developments are generally more likely to produce high-quality housing that makes a positive contribution to its local neighbourhood than the swathes of anodyne towers put up by mainstream developers on larger sites.
刘易舍姆区历来有许多成功的案例，充分证明了社区参与对住房建设的重要性。自20世纪70年代末起，那些排队等待政府廉租房的家庭便有机会采用德国建筑师沃尔特·塞格尔设计的创新建筑体系来自行建造住房。1997年，伦敦首个黑人住房合作社建成了努比亚路住宅区。2024年，一家社区土地信托机构又完成了丘奇格罗夫项目，为当地提供了36套长期可负担的住房。
Lewisham has a long history of successful projects proving the potential of community participation in housing. Beginning in the late 1970s, families on the council housing waiting list were offered the opportunity to build their own homes using an innovative construction system devised by the German architect Walter Segal. In 1997, London’s first black housing co-operative finished building Nubia Way In 2024 a community land trust completed Church Grove, a block of 36 permanently affordable homes But more recently the borough’s reputation for housing leadership has waned.
不过近年来，该区在住房建设领域的领先地位有所下滑。今年6月，位于刘易舍姆中心地带的大型住宅商业综合体“菲里格里”被共同评为“卡本克尔杯”的获奖项目——该奖项专门用来表彰英国最糟糕的新建建筑。因此，如今推出这些旨在复兴社区主导型住房建设的计划可谓恰逢其时。
In June, The Filigree, a major new residential and commercial development in central Lewisham, was announced joint winner of the Carbuncle Cup an award for Britain’s worst new building. These plans to revive ambitious community-led housing could not come sooner.
在未来15年内，刘易舍姆区设定的住房建设目标为30,376套。虽然仅靠社区主导的开发模式难以实现这一目标，但它标志着该地区终于摆脱了那种试图从大型投机性开发项目中零敲碎打获取利益的失败模式。倘若这一模式取得成功，不仅能切实提升地方议会及其居民的议价能力，若能在全国范围内推广，更有可能引发一场社会住房建设领域的真正变革。
Lewisham’s housing target is 30,376 homes over 15 years Community-led development won’t be able to meet that target alone, but it marks a clear break with the failing system of squeezing piecemeal benefits from major speculative developments. If successful, the approach could better empower the council and its constituents – and if introduced nationwide, it could catalyse a genuine revolution in social housing construction everywhere.