You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Khan announces largest TfL housing site so far
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced plans for the largest housing development on Transport for London (TfL) land so far.
TfL is looking for a partner to build 1,500 homes, 600 of which will be affordable, on the Limmo Peninsula in east London, a key tunnelling site for Crossrail.
The proposals, however, fail to meet two of the mayor’s targets for affordable housing. The total of 40% affordable housing is below Mr Khan’s target of 50% affordable housing for new developments on public land.
Ordinarily, this would mean three things: it would not benefit from his fast-tracked planning process, Greater London Authority (GLA) viability experts would examine the assessments made to decide on the 40% level and those assessments would be made public.
In this case, because the aim is for the overall portfolio of TfL land to deliver 50% affordable housing, the site still benefits from the fast-tracked process.
READ MORE
According to figures supplied by the GLA, though, Mr Khan is projected at the moment to deliver only 36% across TfL sites already announced, with 893 affordable homes expected to be delivered on TfL sites out of a total of 2,485 homes.
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “Since he became mayor, Sadiq has insisted that across all sites brought forward by TfL an average of at least 50% of all new homes should be affordable. The levels on individual sites will vary to ensure an overall level of 50% across TfL’s portfolio.”
The mayor said: “The Limmo Peninsula has the capacity to be transformed into a booming new east London neighbourhood. With Elizabeth Line works almost complete, I am pleased that Transport for London is now in a position to bring forward this site for development.
“It is no secret that it will take many years to fix London’s housing crisis, and we ultimately need government support – but schemes such as this prove that we can make a real difference now by delivering high-quality neighbourhoods with a large proportion of genuinely affordable homes.”
TfL has invited bids for the site from the TfL Property Partnership Framework, which includes consortiums partly made up of housing associations.
L&Q, Notting Hill Housing, Peabody and Hyde are the four social landlords on the framework.
Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham, added: “This new development in Canning Town is exciting news for Newham and will contribute to the ongoing transformation of the area. The site will deliver much-needed affordable homes, create jobs and improve infrastructure.
“London’s growth is clearly moving east and the imminent arrival of Crossrail is accelerating this so the delivery of more affordable homes for our residents is imperative.”
Update: at 15.32 on 6.2.18 This story was updated to clarify an exception to the mayor’s rule on fast-tracking.
