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Khan ‘keen’ for Elephant & Castle development to deliver affordable housing
The mayor of London is “keen” that the development of the Elephant & Castle shopping centre delivers “as much affordable housing as possible”, his office has told Inside Housing.
Sadiq Khan will soon consider the application to build 979 homes by developer Delancey to demolish the shopping centre, plans which have been controversial in the local area.
A spokesperson for the mayor said: “This application will be considered on its merits in due course, but the mayor and his team are keen to ensure that it delivers as much genuinely affordable housing as possible.”
Southwark Council’s planning committee originally rejected the planning application. In July, however, it voted to award planning permission when Delancey agreed to increase the number of social rented homes from 33 to 116.
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The development, however, still does not meet the council’s policy for the area, which states that 35% affordable housing should be provided, 50% of which should be for social rent. Delancey has proposed 35% affordable, but only 12% will be for social rent.
In response, the local Labour Party has called on Mr Khan to force Delancey to increase this to 17.5% and to meet the demands of local traders on relocation.
Although planning permission has been granted on the site, the application will still go to the mayor’s office which will have the option to ‘call it in’, giving Mr Khan the chance to re-negotiate affordable housing levels.
Johnson Situ, cabinet member for growth development and planning at Southwark Council, told Inside Housing: “The Delancey scheme approved by the planning committee will deliver a new town centre, together with new homes and jobs, and crucially support transport infrastructure in a heavily congested area.
“However, we also recognise the concerns raised by local residents and the traders in the centre in particular, which is why the council pushed the developers to increase the genuinely affordable housing and guarantee more retail space is affordable, and that there is a £634,000 relocation fund to support all the traders on site.”
