Olympic Park homes in London to be fast tracked

The Mayor of London and the London Legacy Development Corporation have announced plans to accelerate by six years the development of 1,600 homes within two new neighbourhoods on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Chobham Manor, the first neighbourhood on the Park including 850 homes, is set to receive its first residents by 2015. The Legacy Corporation said it will now speed up the creation of the East Wick and Sweetwater neighbourhoods to include 1,600 homes completed and fully occupied by 2023 rather than 2029 as originally planned. Homes in the East Wick neighbourhood would be ready first with residents moving in from 2016.

In order to accelerate the delivery of these properties, the Legacy Corporation will require development partners to provide many more homes for rent in the new neighbourhoods. With a substantial element of the scheme to be designated as homes for rent, homes can be made available more quickly as it takes away the risk of competing against homes for sale in the wider area.

East Wick will be in the north west of the Park, next to Hackney Wick, framing the edge of the parklands with a primary school and community centre at its heart. The East Wick neighbourhood will provide town houses, maisonettes, mews, studios and flats.
Sweetwater will be in the south west of the Park, near Old Ford and is set to create studios, flats and family homes with private gardens and communal green space alongside the Lea Navigation canal.

The Legacy Corporation will work with host boroughs to ensure that local services and facilities such as schools are in place to support the new neighbourhoods as families move in.

‘There’s a huge need for more homes in London and this pressure will only increase as the city grows. Because of the massive interest in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, we have found a way to accelerate the delivery of two neighbourhoods including 1,600 homes without compromising quality. It’s a move that will help people get into the homes they want more quickly,’ said the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Dennis Hone, chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation said that building new homes for rent creates the possibility to achieve this acceleration in housing delivery. ‘We have been very encouraged by market interest in developing this housing at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and we hope it can provide a model for speeding up delivery across London,’ he added.

Chobham Manor neighbourhood consisting 800 family homes will be created at the site where the current series of summer concerts on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are being held, previously the Olympic and Paralympic Basketball Arena.

In addition to the new homes, Chobham Manor will consist of two nursery schools, two community centres, shops, cafes and restaurants. With close proximity there is also a new GP surgery and dentists, as well as Chobham Academy which begins taking students from this September.

Chobham Manor will be within walking distance of Stratford International Station and Stratford Regional Station which offer 10 lines to a third of London’s rail and underground stations.

The new neighbourhood was named Chobham Manor after a public competition. The development will be built on the site of the original manor of the same name. The manor house was built in 1329 and was then renamed when it was bought by John de Chobham in 1843. He lived there for just 14 years but the name stuck. The manor house was swallowed up by railway expansion at the end of the 19th Century.

The first new homes are anticipated to go on sale in early 2015 at Chobham Manor, which will be located between the East Village and Lee Valley VeloPark at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.