Elephant & Castle final-phase plans approved despite lower affordable housing share

Revised plans for the third and final phase of redevelopment of Elephant and Castle’s town centre have been green-lit by Southwark Council, despite a decrease in the proportion of affordable provision.

The new plans, designed by Allies and Morrison, will see a major uplift in the total residential provision through the introduction of a student accommodation component and an increase in the schemes height, while the number of homes for affordable and social rent remains the same. According to an independent review commissioned by the council, the development “cannot currently support any additional affordable housing”.

Other changes to the scheme include a reduction in the floor space for a planned cultural venue and the introduction of additional staircases to each of its three towers.

Developer Delancey’s proposals for the “west site” of the town centre redevelopment were initially approved in 2019 as part of a larger tripartite plan, the first two phases of which are completed or under construction.

However, regulatory changes including the second staircase requirement for buildings taller than 18m resulted in Get Living, a rental landlord founded by Delancey, to make a revised submission for the final phase of the scheme. 

The applicant also wanted “to improve the financial viability of the development”, according to planning documents.

As in the previous application, the proposed development comprises three mansion blocks and three residential towers, which the developer said provided a “softer transition” between the Victorian houses in the neighbouring conservation area and the new, high-rise town centre.

But where the original consent had 498 residential units, of which 165 were meant to be let at affordable or social rent, the new plan includes a total of 959 residential units.

The increase is largely due to the decision to repurpose one of the three towers as purpose-built student accommodation, with 452 beds set to be included.

The number of homes across the rest of the scheme will also be increased slightly, with plans to build a total of 507 new homes, of which 342 will be build-to-rent.

However, the total number of homes for affordable or social rent will remain at 165. This constitutes a reduction from 35% affordable homes by habitable room to 27.6%.

“This is because student housing has been introduced, which increases the overall number of habitable rooms on the site,” the council officers’ report explained. “This has been done in order to ensure that the absolute number of affordable homes delivered on the site is not reduced.”

The scheme’s viability was independently reviewed by Cluttons on behalf of the council, with the firm concluding that “the proposed development cannot currently support any additional affordable housing”.

All of the towers in the new version of the scheme will be slightly taller, with the largest increasing from 35 storeys to 36. The towers will also include two stair cores in order to comply with new building regulations.

As in the original plans, the scheme will deliver a new culture and arts venue on the site of the existing London College of Communication (LCC).

The venue is 260 sq m smaller than in the previous plans, but officers said “it would be large enough to provide a 2,588 sq m capacity venue with a flexible format to enable a range of different activities to take place from the building”.

The new scheme also retains elements of the existing LCC workshop building and introduces a new public square.

Rick de Blaby, chief executive of Get Living, said: “This planning consent represents the final piece of the jigsaw, enabling a regeneration of real and lasting importance - one that everyone can be proud of for generations to come.

“With housing delivery in London at a critically low level and new home completions set to decline sharply from 2028, developments like this bringing forward essential affordable housing alongside open-market rental homes and student accommodation are even more important.”

The original plans for the town centre redevelopment drew criticism, sparking local opposition to the demolition of the well-known Elephant & Castle shopping centre. 

Initially submitted in 2016, the proposals were not approved by the council until 2019, after which they were subject to repeated legal appeals from local campaign ‘Up the Elephant’, which wanted more social housing and a better deal for displaced traders.

The High Court upheld Southwark’s decision later in 2019 and the Court of Appeal did the same in 2021.

Construction of the west site is expected to begin in 2028, once the LCC has moved into its new location, which is being delivered as part of the second phase of the town centre redevelopment.

The project team includes project manager and cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald, with Hoare Lea as services engineer and sustainability consultant, and WSP handling structure, drainage, transport and waste.