A floating solution to London's housing crisis - BBC London — Transcript

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1. 0:00In a tranquil spot of the Chichester
2. 0:02Canal, there's one man hoping to start a
3. 0:05quiet revolution on the water.
4. 0:07It took Mark 12 years to create his
5. 0:09floating home.
6. 0:11Welcome aboard. You're right in nature,
7. 0:13you know. We've got lots We've got the
8. 0:15swans coming past. Um all the ducks and
9. 0:18everything like that. We've got water
10. 0:20voles living in the bank. It's a very
11. 0:22tranquil place to be.
12. 0:24Floating homes could technically be
13. 0:26anything from a traditional houseboat to
14. 0:28a live-on yacht, but Mark wants to
15. 0:30create homes like this, more like
16. 0:32floating apartments built to building
17. 0:34regulations.
18. 0:35According to the Canal and River Trust,
19. 0:37the number of people living on London's
20. 0:39waterways has increased by 75% in the
21. 0:41last 5 years, but making the move from
22. 0:44land to the water comes with new
23. 0:46considerations.
24. 0:48It can all look quite idyllic on a clear
25. 0:50evening, but there are costs and
26. 0:51considerations when living on the water.
27. 0:53There's the upkeep of your boat, the
28. 0:55safety certificates that are involved,
29. 0:57and the cost of a mooring, which for a
30. 0:58permanent one in central London can be
31. 1:00between 10 and 12,000 pounds a year.
32. 1:03London has around 100 km of waterways,
33. 1:06not including the many hectares of open
34. 1:08docks, and Mark isn't the only one with
35. 1:10ideas of how to use them. This is one
36. 1:13architect's vision of a floating village
37. 1:15on the Royal Docks.
38. 1:16We're looking at a a cluster of
39. 1:18somewhere between 50 and 200 homes, all
40. 1:21organized around a village blue with
41. 1:23shops, pubs, workspaces, and then people
42. 1:26could have a floating house where you've
43. 1:27got your own mooring, and there's this
44. 1:28lovely sort of community that could be
45. 1:30developed.
46. 1:31Across London, the team think more homes
47. 1:33could be fitted in too.
48. 1:35So, without sort of interfering too much
49. 1:36with sort of waterborne traffic, we can
50. 1:37deliver somewhere in the order between
51. 1:397,500
52. 1:4010,000 homes right here in the heart of
53. 1:42the city.
54. 1:43So, is it feasible to put more homes on
55. 1:45our waterways? There is a worry we might
56. 1:47crowd them.
57. 1:48It's almost like a an a park that runs
58. 1:51through the city, a blue-green space.
59. 1:52And so, we want everybody to enjoy it,
60. 1:54whether they're walking their dog, going
61. 1:55for a walk. Um they it contributes to
62. 1:58people's natural health and well-being.
63. 2:00And we like that to be a mixed space
64. 2:01where everybody can enjoy that. So,
65. 2:03while we encourage more boats and we
66. 2:04want more people to enjoy the water
67. 2:06space, but it's very much a getting a
68. 2:07balance right between those different
69. 2:09uses so that everybody can enjoy that
70. 2:10space.
71. 2:11Using London's waterways differently is
72. 2:13complicated and requires new ways of
73. 2:16looking at how life could be lived on
74. 2:17the water. But with pressure to find
75. 2:20more places to house Londoners, in the
76. 2:22future, could more of us be living a
77. 2:24floating life?