Local residents battling against developers at a site near the 02 in Greenwich, southeast London, will hear in October whether a tribunal will allow them to scrutinise details of the scheme’s financial viability assessment.
City Peninsula Residents claims that affordable housing in the development has been reduced from the recommended 38% to just 25% of the development.
Greenwich Council went against its own planning policy to allow a reduced number of affordable houses in the scheme.
Residents also claim that affordable housing is being limited to certain areas of the development, with the result that wealthy homeowners will be living in the north of the site – and affordable housing will be sited in the south.
The 25-year regeneration project will eventually provide 10,000 new homes – the first 200 homes were marketed at the weekend, with prices ranging between £250,000 and £1.7 million. The total redevelopment cost is estimated at £5 billion.
The developer – Hong Kong-based Knight Dragon – has denied that the development will ghettoise poorer residents.
Chief Executive Richard Margree said that decisions about the development had been based on “economic reality”, rather than “social cleansing”.
“The idea of picking the best plot and putting the most expensive buildings on it – there’s nothing sinister about that as an idea,” he said. “It’s how you encourage developers to come and build.
“Yes, there’ll be different apartments – but having people who want a fantastic view of Canary Wharf in a big-statement building, that not contra to the idea of local residents.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson has called the redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula “one of the most exciting regeneration projects in Europe”.
However, Secretary of City Peninsula Residents, Shane Brownie, said that affordable housing was being “bunched” in certain areas of the site:
“It’s messing up a new community – turning it into a polarised area, with rich people in the north and poor people in the south,” Mr Brownie told the Evening Standard.
Mr Brownie’s request to see the financial viability assessment has already been rejected by Greenwich Council – and a tribunal will now decide on whether the information can be released.
A landmark case in May forced Southwark Council to hand over a large proportion of a financial viability assessment relating to the controversial Heygate Estate development in southeast London.
Some lessees on the Heygate Estate who had bought council homes under Right to Buy claimed that Southwark Council only offered them much-reduced compulsory purchase prices – meaning they were unable to buy a home on the redeveloped estate or even in the same area.
There has also been controversy surrounding the rate at which overseas buyers are snapping up properties in London – often with the properties being marketed to home buyers in the UK.
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