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City Hall enters London land market with acquisition of hospital site
City Hall has purchased its first site for housing development with the acquisition of a hospital site in north London.
The deal to purchase two-thirds of the St Ann’s Hospital site in Haringey was branded a “landmark” moment in the authority’s statement.
The involvement of the mayor of London will mean half of the 800 homes to be developed on the site are affordable.
The deal marks the first use of mayor Sadiq Khan’s £250m Land Fund, which he set up to compete with London’s luxury housing developers for sites in order to provide more affordable housing.
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The mayor purchased the 11.24 hectare site from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust ahead of a redevelopment of the hospital and the construction of housing around it.
The land will be sold to housing associations, councils and community land trusts, with any profits recycled to buy further land to build homes and unlock further opportunities across the capital.
Mr Khan intends to use the £250m war chest to buy more sites in London to prepare land for new and affordable housing.
The original planning permission for St Ann’s is a significant increase on existing plans for the site – secured originally in 2015 – which would have delivered 470 homes, with 14% affordable.
Mr Khan said: “As mayor, I’ve set out how City Hall will take a more active and direct approach to unlocking sites across the capital. Late last year I announced my plans for a new Land Fund to buy sites – and at St Ann’s we are showing what this can achieve.
“Not only will my intervention unlock this site, but it will also allow us nearly to double the number of homes, and crucially increase six-fold the number of affordable homes that had previously been given planning permission.”
Michael Fox, chair of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, said: “This is very exciting news for the Trust, our patients and our staff.
“We are delighted that the mayor of London has stepped in and purchased the surplus land, which means the current mental health inpatient wards at St Ann’s Hospital will soon be replaced by brand new, state-of-the-art mental health facilities.”
City Hall did not disclose the amount paid for the site, branding it “commercially sensitive”.
