Mayor of London approves plans for 97-home mixed-use development on Putney High Street

The decision overrules Wandsworth Council's proposal to refuse permission for the development in July.

The scheme, from property investment company British Land, proposes 97 new homes on first to sixth floors of the new block, with affordable housing provision of up to 20%. A total of 3,137 square metres of shops, cafés and restaurants and 447 sq m for assembly and leisure use would provide an active ground floor frontage on all four sides of the block.

A new public square and basement car parking and spaces for cycle storage have also been proposed.

The new development would replace an existing two- to five-storey building in mixed use and a service yard used as a car park. The existing building contains ground floor retail units, two residential flats, a children's soft play centre, a gym and a small amount of office space.

The Council had received 216 responses to its initial consultation on the plans, of which 211 were objections. The Council's planning committee voted unanimously to refuse permission for the development at a meeting in July, after finding that the scheme "by reason of its height, bulk and design would be an incongruous addition to the streetscape and of insufficient quality to justify the proposed height".

According to the mayor's report on the decision (60-page / 2 MB PDF), Johnson considered that the principle of a residential-led mixed-use development was supported by the London Plan and by Wandsworth's local planning policies. The report said the London Plan sought to focus retail, commercial and leisure development within existing town centres and the site was "identified for providing an opportunity to improve the vitality and viability of Putney Town Centre" in the Council's site specific allocations document.

The report said the development would provide "much needed housing" and the proposed affordable housing provision complied with local and London-wide policies. It said the proposal would meet an identified need for "modern retail units that can accommodate medium to large floorplates in Putney Town Centre" and would more than double the site's active frontage.

The report noted that issues regarding the height of the scheme, its active frontage and residential quality had been addressed during consultation and the mayor considered the scheme to be "of a high design quality". It said the overshadowing effects of the scheme were acceptable and the new block "would not result in a significant loss of sunlight or daylight to neighbouring residential properties".

Planning expert Susanne Andreasen of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "British Land will be understandably pleased with this decision by the mayor given that the refusal of the proposal by Wandsworth's planning committee was contrary to a recommendation by officers to grant approval. The conclusions in the mayor's report are in line with those reached by planning officers, including that although the proposed scheme is taller than surrounding buildings, this is considered acceptable in light of the site's town centre location."

"The mayor is not often seen to call in applications for proposals of a scale similar to this scheme. However, he is well known for his support for tall buildings and given Putney Town centre's policy allocations as a potential location for tall buildings, it is not surprising that the mayor has been keen to intervene in this decision," Andreasen said.