“Nimbies in disguise” thwart Boris's London housing plans

25th July 2014

Boris Johnson has accused some homeowners of dishonestly claiming they care about new homes being affordable or well-designed, when in fact they simply oppose new developments in their area entirely.

Mr Johnson said his efforts to increase housebuilding in the capital have been frustrated by residents opposed to any new development. He told the BBC: “Very often in London what you see is people objecting to a scheme purportedly because they say it fails such-and-such an architectural criteria, it’s not beautiful enough, or something like that. Or they say there isn’t enough affordable housing… You have a coalition of people who pretend to be in favour of such-and-such a thing – better architecture or whatever – and what they want is no building in their area. You’ve got nimbies in disguise. That is very often the problem”.
Source:   The Daily Telegraph (24/07/14)