Southwark Council agree terms for Canada Water regeneration project

The regeneration project covers 46 acres and the site is made up of the former Harmsworth Quays print works, Surrey Quays shopping centre and Mast Leisure centre.

The agreement includes terms that enable the delivery of thousands of new homes and a 5.5 million square foot town centre. The new town centre has the potential for offices, shops, educational space and community space. The masterplan also includes plans to replace Seven Islands Leisure Centre with a new leisure centre.

The Council has agreed that 35% of the new homes will be allocated as affordable homes, and they also have the option to buy the site's social-rented homes.

Southwark Council would like the regenerated area to be a "London living wage zone", which would ensure that every worker would earn at least the London living wage as a minimum.

Councillor Mark Williams said, "This development is an enormous opportunity for the local community and Southwark as a whole. It is important to recognise that this will be a truly mixed use scheme with significant jobs generated, both during construction and in the completed scheme."

"This development also gives us the opportunity to be at the vanguard of our plans for sustainable transport with better pedestrian and cycling links to the rest of the borough, and a reduction on reliance of cars," he said. "We know that more investment is needed in local transport provision including more Jubilee Line trains, more overground services, improving the Lower Road Gyratory and building a new pedestrian and cycling bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf".

Planning expert Victoria Lindsay of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said "This is a step in the right direction for the revitalisation of Canada Water with a further report to authorise an exchange of contracts expected to go to the Council's cabinet next year. The heads of terms that have recently been agreed by Southwark Council's cabinet will inform the masterplan development and the next stage of consultation."

"One element of the consultation with residents and key stakeholders will concentrate on the site for the new leisure centre and the final decision for its location will be included in the 2016 report. The site currently proposed for the leisure centre has been criticised by green campaigners as it is located in a green patch of land at the western edge of the Surrey Quays car park," Lindsay said.