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New partnership to create 14,000 new homes in London

National Grid and Berkeley Group have established a joint venture to develop major residential and mixed use development schemes in an initiative known as St William Homes LLP.

It brings together access to a significant portfolio of brownfield land owned by National Grid Property in key areas of housing need with Berkeley's ability to design, build and market new developments.

‘London's population is set to rise by 37% to more than 11 million people by 2050 and innovative approaches to house building such as this well help to unlock vast swathes of land and deliver thousands of much needed new homes,’ said Sir Edward Lister, deputy Mayor for Planning.

‘National Grid has numerous sites across the capital that are ripe for regeneration and this partnership will stimulate development and create new jobs. Schemes such as this go hand in hand with the Mayor's work to accelerate the building of thousands more homes for Londoners with a range of pioneering new policies, including the creation of new housing zones and a housing bank,’ he added.

In its first phase, St William aims to develop more than 7,000 new homes, including over 2,000 affordable homes. Development at this scale would also deliver 5,500 jobs, 2 new schools and 22 acres of public open space, transforming 84 acres of former industrial land and contributing over £150 million to local infrastructure and amenities.

Meanwhile, the Lewisham Gateway development is set to deliver hundreds of new homes, a new riverside park and over 1,000 new jobs on land released by the Mayor of London, the London Borough of Lewisham and Transport for London, as part of a drive to accelerate house building on thousands of sites across the capital.

Engineers on the site have rerouted two rivers and begun work on a completely new road layout. Work is also underway on the first two new buildings on the site, which are already beginning to rise from their foundations.

When work on the site in Lewisham is complete it will provide up to 800 new homes in a world class development that will include new shops, cafes, park land and hugely improved access to the town centre. It is a plan that was first conceived a decade ago but was only made possible last year when, with strong support from the Mayor of London, the Government approved £20 million of funding to kick start redevelopment of the area.

The development is part of a wider drive by the Mayor of London to deliver new homes on surplus land owned by the public sector. Almost 90% of 670 hectares of public land taken on by the Mayor in 2012 is now in the development pipeline, including on the former Catford stadium, and most recently appointing two developers for sites in Newham at Pontoon Dock and Silvertown Way for US style, purpose built rented housing.

The Mayor is pioneering new programmes including twenty Housing Zones across the capital and a new Housing Bank. This year alone, more affordable homes are being built than in any other since 1980.

‘The Mayor is investing billions of pounds on accelerating the building of new houses on thousands of sites and releasing swathes of disused land. Lewisham Gateway is a fantastic example of how we can work in partnership with developers on a scheme that will revitalise the town centre, boost the economy and provide new parkland alongside hundreds of new homes,’ said Richard Blakeway, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Land.

Michael Auger, regional director for Muse Developments who are developing the Lewisham Gateway scheme, said it could not have come to fruition without the support of a large number of parties. ‘We're looking forward to continuing apace with the construction and delivering high quality public space and hundreds of new homes for the area,’ he added.

Gareth Blacker, head of transactions at the HCA, pointed out that it is one of the largest investments from the Get Britain Building fund and has helped deliver the major infrastructure works necessary for the development to get underway.

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