Deal comes amid concern over viability of London schemes amid rising costs
The Greater London Authority has agreed a public private partnership with developer Knight Dragon to press ahead with the development of the 17,000-home redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) said in a statement that, following the agreement with Knight Dragon, it will now seek “delivery partners on an accelerated timeline”, enabling it to “increase delivery and momentum” on the build out of the site.
The statement said the public private partnership covered the delivery of 3,000 across the district, with up to 60% of the homes to be affordable.
The redevelopment of the £8.4bn plan for the area is underway, with three of seven planned neighbourhoods complete and the area home to 5,000 people. However, L&Q, the affordable housing delivery partner for the scheme, has recently reined in its former plans to expand its output to 10,000 homes per annum, amid wider challenges facing the housing association sector.
The statement comes amid growing concern over the health of the development market in London given the worsening economic climate and the impact of rising labour and materials costs on viability.
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The statement said L&Q had committed to deliver 476 homes under the partnership deal with no less than 60% of the homes affordable, and to start on site this year. However, the statement didn’t make clear by how much the scheme was being accelerated, or when the homes will be delivered by.
The news comes after Housing Today in June reported that Knight Dragon had picked contruction giant Mace to build the £2bn next phase of the Greenwich Peninsula scheme, Meridian Quays, over the next 10 years.
London’s deputy mayor for housing and residential development, Tom Copley, said accelerating home delivery was a “key priority” for Mayor Sadiq Khan. He said: “This is an important initiative which will bring forward thousands of genuinely affordable homes that Londoners desperately need.”
Richard Margree, CEO of Knight Dragon, said the partnership was “a strong statement of our confidence in London.”
Vicky Savage, executive director of development at L&Q, said: “We are delighted to put spades in the ground at Greenwich Peninsula; playing an active role in the delivery of this exciting scheme and increasing affordable housing provision in the area.”
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