The Mayor of London has stepped in and given the go-ahead to two developments of affordable homes in the city after planning permission was refused by councils.
The developments in Wealdstone and Tottenham Hale will provide what the Mayor Sadiq Khan described as hundreds of genuinely affordable homes and he said it is part of his determined approach to accelerating the delivery of new housing in London.
Both were refused permission by their respective borough councils and both applications offer high density schemes near well connected transport hubs in outer London locations.
Hale Wharf rises up to 21 storeys and is four minutes’ walk from Tottenham Hale and will provide 505 homes of which 35% or 177 will be affordable, up from 9% in the original planning application. Plans for Palmerston Road in Wealdstone include 186 homes, of which 41% or 74 will be affordable.
‘Having carefully considered all the evidence available to me, I am confident both these high density developments will deliver hundreds of the much needed, genuinely affordable homes Londoners need in areas of the capital ripe for further development,’ said Khan.
‘We’ve worked with the applicant on the Hale Wharf scheme in Haringey to increase the level of affordable housing and ensure the project will not encroach on our precious green belt, as was the case in earlier designs,’ he explained.
‘The development at Palmerston Road in Harrow also offers a high level of affordable housing, which is particularly important as we move towards my long term strategic target of 50% affordable,’ he added.
Khan also pointed out that both schemes are close to transport links and this is one of the key factors in determining where major housing developments should be built. ‘Building the homes Londoners urgently need will mean town centres and suburbs becoming denser, so we expect developers to continue to come up with high quality designs which don’t have a negative impact on their surroundings,’ Khan said.
City Hall planners processed the applications quickly and both took around two months to reach the Mayor for his final decision which he pointed out was significantly faster than under the previous mayoralty.
