Mayor publishes planning framework for Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area

The OAPF outlines plans for high density mixed use development with capacity for 16,000 new homes; up to 25,000 new jobs; the delivery of a two station extension of the Northern line from Kennington to Battersea via Nine Elms, and public realm works.

The area is one of 33 opportunity areas identified in the London Plan as being places to accommodate substantial number of new jobs and homes, and the London Mayor Boris Johnson intends that the planning framework for the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea opportunity area will help create a new district attracting investment and generating new jobs, prosperity and growth. 

Johnson said that success in east London, where he says major investment in infrastructure from the Olympics has attracted international investments, means that this scale of development is possible.

"There is every reason to believe that we can replicate that level of success on both the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea," he said.

The Mayor's vision is that by 2030 the 195 hectare Opportunity Area will became a distinctive quarter of London.

"Nine Elms will be a prestigious destination for international investment anchored by the rejuvenated Battersea Power Station and the new US Embassy," the framework said. "A major new town centre at the former Power Station will provide the focus of much of the new economic activity."

The projections in the OAPF of new homes and jobs assumes that 200,000 square metres of mixed use development will be built, plus that 60,000 sq m of retail, 160,000 sq m of new offices and 80,000 sq m of other employment related uses at Battersea Power Station will be created.  The OAPF also provides for a package of transport improvements to support the Northern Line extension, guidance on building heights and a tariff for infrastructure provision under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act.

A section 106 agreement is a legally binding agreement under the Town and Country Planning Act which allows a local planning authority to agree planning obligations with a developer in association with the granting of planning permission.

The OAPF states that frameworks created for opportunity areas “do not create new policy but clarify it in a specific spatial context” and are intended to “give greater certainty to the development process and achieve material weight through bringing together a sound evidence base upon which planning decision are made, and through extensive consultation with key stakeholders, interested parties and the public”.

The publication of the OAPF follows Wandsworth Council's approval of a scheme for 1,870 homes on the Royal Mail site in the Nine Elms regeneration area earlier this week.