Olympic planners accused over 'affordable' homes

Lord Coe unveils the Olympic rings last week (Getty Images)

Olympic planners have been warned they risk "a betrayal" of the east London communities if they do not guarantee local people homes in the regenerated Olympic site.

More than 11,000 new properties will be built on the site of the Olympic Park in the next 20 years but despite assurances that more than a third would be allocated "affordable housing" there are fears that recent changes to social housing policy will mean that the majority of local people will be frozen out by the high cost.

Baroness Doocey, the Liberal Democrat peer who chaired the London Assembly's Olympics scrutiny panel, said denying local people "their fair share" of the new homes would "negate the promise made when we won the Olympics seven years ago."

Five brand new neighbourhoods are promised across 558 acres in the London boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham. The first set of properties, converted from the flats in the Athletes' Village, will go on sale in little over a year's time. A subsidised two-bedroom property in Newham, rented at up to 80 per cent of market rates, would cost an average £762 a month – beyond the reach of many locals.

Keith Fernett, a housing expert and director of Anchor House, a homeless skills centre in Newham said: "Traditionally 'affordable' meant homes for working class, low income people. Now it means earning £30,000 or more, which is beyond most of the people in the borough. There are 32,000 people on the social housing waiting list here."

Daniel Moylan, of the London Legacy Development Corporation, vows the new neighbourhoods will "stitch together the surrounding communities through new homes, shops, parks, schools, infrastructure and jobs."