Top Architect Blasts 'Free-Riding' Tenants Living In Council Houses In Central London

A top London architect has called for “free-riding” council tenants to be moved out of central London and for affordable housing to be abolished. In a hugely controversial speech Patrik Schumacher, director and principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, also praised London’s foreign second home owners “even if they’re here only for a few weeks” and suggested that “80 per cent of Hyde Park” should be built over.  In his incendiary address to the World Architecture Festival in Berlin he said London’s housing crisis was the result of “intellectually bankrupt” planning departments and said only the free market can provide “housing for everyone.” He said that social housing tenants in gentrifying inner city areas should not expect to be able to carry on living in central London when their council estates are demolished and should be replaced by more “productive” residents - such as his own staff. Read more on the Evening Standard website.