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Riverside pushes on with £100m regeneration scheme but planning application delayed
Riverside has formally agreed a joint venture with house builder Bellway on a £109m tenant-backed estate regeneration in south London, but has delayed submitting a planning application.
The 56,000-home landlord, which recently appointed Terrie Alafat as its new chair, is pushing ahead with the proposals at its Lambeth estate after two-thirds of residents voted in favour of it last December.
The ballot among tenants was the first Riverside had won since new rules were introduced by London mayor Sadiq Khan in July last year. The measures mean regeneration schemes in the capital must pass a resident ballot to receive funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA). Riverside won a ballot on a second London scheme in May.
However, the planning application for the 400-home, mixed-tenure scheme in south London appears to have been delayed. Riverside previously said it would submit an application this year. However, it is now saying plans will be submitted to Lambeth Council in spring 2020.
Riverside admitted in June that since the residents’ ballot “consultation with tenants has taken a slower pace”. A Riverside spokesperson told Inside Housing: “We continue to engage with Lambeth [Council] planners as part of our pre-planning consultation process.”
Construction work, if permission is granted, is expected to start “early 2021”.
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Estate regeneration projects have proved controversial of late.
Last year, Haringey Council cancelled a £4bn joint venture with developer Lendlease over plans to regenerate parts of Wood Green in north London, after a Momentum-backed Labour candidate was elected as the new leader of the authority. And in July this year, Milton Keynes Council pulled its plans for a major regeneration project.
Riverside first picked Bellway to work on the project in March last year, but the groups announced late last week that contracts have now been exchanged to create a joint venture.
The scheme is being developed through Bellway’s newly formed London partnerships division, which aims to work with housing associations and local authorities to build new affordable homes in the capital.
The new development, across Canterbury Close, Geoffrey Close and York Close in Lambeth, will include 35% of homes at “genuinely affordable rents”, the groups said.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) has allocated £9.5m to fund socially rented homes on the new estate, while Riverside plans to raise £91m through the sale of private homes.
Riverside has said the new development will “reduce over-crowding and improve community safety”.
The housing association, which operates across more than 160 local authorities, reported a 56% drop in group post-tax surplus to £26.4m in its most recent financial year off a revenue of £364m.
Last week FTSE 250 Bellway reported a 3.4% rise in annual profits to £662.6m as revenue rose 9% to £3.2bn.
