Sadiq Khan has begun delivering on a manifesto pledge today by announcing the first site owned by Transport for London (TfL) has been released for development, creating hundreds of new homes for Londoners.
The Mayor of London instructed TfL to bring forward the site in Kidbrooke, which will provide 400 new homes – 50 per cent of which will be affordable to rent and buy. Sadiq has set out a long-term strategic goal for 50 per cent of new homes in London to be affordable – in contrast to the 13 per cent affordable housing that was approved in the previous Mayor’s final year in office.
The four-acre Greenwich site, which has been sat empty for the eight years of Boris Johnson’s time in office, is the first in a wave of sites ready to be developed for thousands of new homes for Londoners and marks a key manifesto commitment to bring forward TfL-owned land for development across London. It will be followed by a further batch of brownfield sites unlocked by the Mayor and TfL in the autumn.
It has been identified there is the potential to build up to 10,000 new homes at 75 sites across 300 acres on land owned by TfL across the capital and Sadiq is working to fast-track sites to provide genuinely affordable homes for Londoners.
The Mayor also plans to bid to develop other public sector land across London and will work with Government ministers to ensure a far more active role for City Hall in identifying surplus public land that can be used for the construction of the new affordable housing London needs.
The site in Kidbrooke is adjacent to a national rail station and the Henley Cross bus station, which has the potential to deliver up to 5,000 sq ft of retail and commercial space as well as improvements to the local area, including an upgraded bus station. The site includes an acre of Network Rail land which is also being developed as part of this scheme.
TfL is aiming to have a development partner identified early next year to form a joint venture to seek planning permission and develop the site that will be completed in 2020.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Londoners are being priced out of their own city and we need to be honest that we’re not going to turn things round overnight. Last year my predecessor built fewer affordable homes than in any year since records began 25 years ago – fixing this is going to take time.
“Getting homes built on public land can be hard,–but after being elected I set to work immediately to make sure we get building on more of the hundreds of sites owned by Transport for London, stretching right across the capital, that have been allowed to languish unused for far too long. This site in Kidbrooke will be the first of many we are fast-tracking to build genuinely affordable homes for Londoners.”
Graeme Craig, TfL Commercial Development Director said: “Kidbrooke is the first of over a hundred sites that we are looking to develop to help us meet London’s critical need for housing. This is also one of a number of ways we’re generating substantial non-fare revenue to reinvest in modernising London’s network to make it better for everyone.”
TfL will be working with traditional larger developers, while additional sites will be developed in conjunction with small and medium size enterprises and Community Land Trusts – helping to diversify the pool of people and businesses who benefit from London’s growth.
Notes to editors
- The site previously formed part of a RAF base. It was then used as operational land during the construction of the A2 and has since stood largely untouched.
- To find out more about the TfL Property Partnership Framework, click here: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2016/february/tfl-selects-13-property-partners-to-help-it-deliver-thousands-of-homes-for-lond
- The wider City Hall family will also be able to use the framework to bring forward developments on their sites.
- The 13 companies and consortiums on the TfL Property Partnership Framework are:
- Balfour Beatty PLC
- Barratt Development PLC/London and Quadrant Housing Association (Consortium)
- Berkeley Group PLC
- The British Land Company PLC
- Canary Wharf Group PLC
- Capital and Counties PLC
- U+I/Notting Hill Housing Group (Consortium)
- Land Securities Group PLC
- Mace Limited/Peabody Trust/DV4 Limited (Consortium)
- Mount Anvil Group Limited/Hyde Housing Association Limited
- Redrow Homes Ltd
- Stanhope PLC/Mitsui Fudosan Company Limited
- Taylor Wimpey UK Ltd
- The Mayoral Direction can be found here: https://www.london.gov.uk/decisions/md2022-direction-tfl-concerning-disposal-land-kidbrooke.