Approval comes after seven years of planning on the BTR scheme

Planning consent has finally been granted to Grosvenor’s £500m build-to-rent scheme on the site of an old biscuit factory in Bermondsey, south London, which will feature 1,548 homes.

The Bermondsey scheme, which Grosvenor have been working on for the past seven years, will also include play areas, public spaces, pedestrian routes, and 150,000ft² of employment space.

Its initial plans, on the previous site of Peek Freans biscuit factory, were submitted to Southwark council in November 2017. These were thrown out in February last year when the council said the development, designed by architect KPF, failed “to provide the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing” and that the properties ”would not be affordable to those in greatest housing need”. 

After the application was called in and taken over by the mayor of London in May 2019 changes were made to the amount of affordable housing and deputy mayor Jules Pipe approved the plans.

The level of affordable housing was increased from 27.5% to 35%, which meets the local council’s minimum requirement threshold.

The development will now include around 482 affordable homes, of which 342 will be offered at discount market rent and 140 at social rent levels. Private cars will be banned from the site once it is completed.

A spokesperson for the developer said it hoped to get building work underway “as soon as possible”, with a summertime start likely once a contractor has been appointed. The first phase of the development will include 359 rental homes, a 600-pupil secondary school and 8,155ft² of employment space.

Pipe said he believed the scheme would make a significant contribution towards the regeneration of the area.