Outline masterplan approved by councillors will increase number of homes on peninsula to over 17,000

A new masterplan setting out plans for 5,813 homes on the Greenwich Peninsula were approved by councillors in the borough last night.

The masterplan, which covers around a third of the whole Greenwich Peninsula site, increases the number of homes envisaged on the plot by 1,757, taking the number of homes planned on the peninsula as a whole to almost 17,500.

The outline application also proposed that 41% of homes should be affordable, up from the low point of 21% negotiated after developer Knight Dragon bought out the scheme in 2013 from former partner Quintain. The outline permission updates a portion of the 2015 masterplan approval for the whole site secured by Knight Dragon.

Greenwich Peninsula Central masterplan by Allies and Morrison2015_1808189_GMP_01_V01_Greenwich-Aerial

A visualisation of Knight Dragon’s 2015 masterplan, by Allies and Morrison

In addition, a detailed application for 476 units in towers of up to 36 storeys, also approved alongside the outline plans, will see 56% of the homes delivered under affordable tenures. The scheme is now being built out in partnership between Knight Dragon and affordable housing giant L&Q.

The outline masterplan for the 20-hectare portion of the peninsula also envisages the construction of 500 student of co-living rooms, a 350-room hotel and almost 70,000 sq m of commercial space for businesses.

Overall, the masterplan envisages homes to be built out at a very high density of over 400 habitable rooms per hectare, with the detailed part of the permission envisaging four towers of 10 storeys or more.

Tom Copley, Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for housing in London, said he was delighted that the permission was accelerating the delivery of “genuinely affordable homes” on the peninsula.

He said: “Thanks to Greenwich council approving this new masterplan, up to 60 per cent affordable housing will be delivered in a brand new neighbourhood on land owned by City Hall. This has been accomplished despite the major challenges facing London’s housing sector, not least the pandemic.

“The new delivery framework agreed between L&Q, Knight Dragon and the GLA is a prime example of what local government, housing associations and developers can achieve in partnership.”