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Council expects 50% affordable homes on prison site
Islington Council has launched a consultation into the future of the Holloway Prison site, with an expectation that 50% of any new housing should be “genuinely affordable”.
The former women’s prison closed last year and the Ministry of Justice plans to sell the site.
The Labour-led council has drafted a supplementary planning document which sets out the types of development that could be built on the site. This includes an expectation to deliver 50% affordable housing and community facilities.
The document states that a development of 600 homes with 50% affordable housing will be viable if it is made up of 70% social rent and 30% shared ownership. It also looks at replacing shared ownership with London Living Rent, and found this is still viable.
This coincides with the mayor of London’s supplementary planning guidance, published today, which calls for 50% of homes built on public land to be affordable.
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The document reads: “The site is considered to represent an important opportunity to meet the significant need for affordable homes in the borough – this is a key priority for the draft SPD [supplementary planning document].”
Diarmaid Ward, executive member for housing and development at Islington Council, said: “There is a dire shortage of affordable housing in London, and this publicly owned site is a very important opportunity to build some of the genuinely affordable homes that Londoners so badly need.
“This is a large site which can provide a very significant amount of housing. We have tested a number of scenarios, which show that 50% of homes can be secured as genuinely affordable housing.”
The consultation deadline is 2 October.
