Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Council approves affordable housing cut for Greenwich Peninsula scheme

01 Jul 2013, 3:12 pm

Greenwich Council's planning board has agreed to modify the section 106 agreement for developer Quintain's major regeneration scheme at east London's Greenwich Peninsula to reduce the affordable housing obligation from 38% to 25%.

The modification will result in no affordable housing being provided on four of the 11 Peninsula Quays plots which form part of the Greenwich Peninsula masterplan.

The masterplan, which was approved in 2004, set out plans for the construction of up to 10,010 new homes, with 3,803 of those to be provided as affordable homes. The masterplan proposed that the development would be constructed at a rate of approximately 500 homes a year for 20 years.

However, the Council's planning officers said in their committee report (14-page / 115KB PDF) that in the nine years since the masterplan was approved, only 229 homes have been constructed, of which 60 are affordable.

The report noted that the slow progress of development on the site, which it said has been exacerbated by the economic downturn, has effectively made residential development on the site unviable.

It said that the reduced affordable housing obligations would "significantly accelerate the speed of residential development" on the site and would enable 646 affordable homes to be completed by the end of 2017.

The agreement would also ensure that approximately £50 million worth of affordable housing grant currently allocated to the Greenwich Peninsula by the Greater London Authority would remain allocated.

The officers said that the revised affordable housing position would be acceptable because of "certain unique and exceptional circumstances" which they said "principally" relate to the cost to the Government of remediating the site and providing new infrastructure.