September 2010 Archives

As part of trying to speed up the planning process the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson or rather a member of his team give out regular pre-planning decision advice on major applications. It's rather basic in detail but it does give sound guidance on whether planning applications meet the London Plan, which is obviously helpful. If it doesn't the application isn't going to get very far. In the detail it also states which parts of the application are sound and which parts need tweaking in order to pass through the planning process. All massively helpful to developers. What it also does is give us a good indication as to what big schemes are likely to come to committee within the next few months. So here's what the mayor's been saying in his latest round up.

First up, the proposals for a new hotel development as well as the demolition and re-development of 3 stands at Oval Cricket ground to increase capacity. This one's already got permission for a similar scheme and so unsurprisingly the Mayor gives the go-ahead for the council to decide this one itself. Below, is the permission as it stands on the left and right the new scheme with slight changes. Click on the image to see a larger version. 

Another scheme we should expect to see at Lambeth's committee in the not too distant future is the Vauxhall Cross island site development. Encouragingly the Mayor states 'overall, the scheme is of a high architectural quality', as well as having no impact on strategic views. It does ask for more detailing regarding such factors as inclusive design, children's play space, climate change and air quality amongst others. This is nothing new however, just the usual spiel given out at this stage where the Mayor makes his initial representation. 

Another major scheme overseen by Boris is that of what is only at this stage called 'Plot 24, Zone 3, Stratford'. This is a 7-storey 149 bed hotel as well as a 42-storey 150 bed hotel and a 253 residential unit development. The Mayor's major qualm at this stage is around affordable housing and the financial viability and appraisal around it. 

Lastly, the Mayor recently gave his first view on this huge estate renewal scheme by Poplar HARCA for well over a thousand units. This one however looks as though it may face more difficulty in satisfying planners as the Mayor states the application raises a host of policy matters, not least the fact that it is in close proximity to operational gas storage holders (a hazardous installation). Expect the health and safety executive (HSE) to get involved just as they did coincidentally with the Oval cricket ground a couple of years back.  

And there's your quick round up. To see the Mayor's planning decisions yourself, follow this link.     

The Daily Telegraph today published a leaked document revealing a long list of 177 quangos which are set to go on to the scrap heap as part of the coalition governments austerity drive to save billions of pounds. Interestingly there are of course a number of development and property names on that list. Here's a quick low down.

Obviously the 8 'Regional Development Agencies' (RDA) will go, we already knew that, they will be replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEA). More interestingly though the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation will see some changes but not complete abolishmsent. This seems like a no-brainer really, often criticised for not doing enough and having too many differing facets within to work as one, its work will now be devolved between the local authorities it serves and have to report to the mayor's office. The same will happen with Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation.

Another one to go will be British Waterways, who have actually done a great deal for rejuvenating and gentrifying waterways within urban contexts from their industrial pasts; been around since the 1940's too, none the less. They own a 50% stake in the huge Wood Wharf development remember, where will this go?

Others set to be completley abolished include the Infrastructure Planning Commission, the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit and the Sustainable Development Commission.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company will also see some changes and be turned into a Mayoral Development Corporation. At the moment it exists as a quasi-autonomous, non-governmental organisation and instead of being completely eradicated will now report to the mayor's office. Apparently these plans have been in place as far back as June.

English Heritage will however survive the cull and will have to absorb two other organisations, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Heritage Lottery Fund, so basically it sounds it will receive more funds! They seem to be the real winners in all of this.

Meanwhile quangos which are still not on any list to save or get rid of and are currently on a precarious list of 'threatened with being scrapped' and still under review include CABE, the Homes & Communties Agency (HCA) and the British Council.

The full list of quangos set to go can be viewed here: Remember however, the list isn't final and could see some changes made to it in the near future. We wait until the government reveals the official list, instead of someone leaking it to the papers!  

Looking very folorn, this is The Victoria, a once proud boozer on Woolwich Road...

There was an application to turn it into a cafe/resi establishment back in 2004, but as you can see it was never implemented. Since 1997, some 3,500 traditional pubs have called their final last-orders in Britain. A sobering thought.

New Capital Quay looked as though it was about to kick off a few months ago. This week, however, I went to have another look at it...

A developer in Harrow has been successful in altering a S106 agreement for a nearly completed scheme to remove the requirement for affordable housing. It argued the scheme would be unviable as the units were not eligible for grants from the Housing Corporation and difficulties had been encountered with a contractor going into liquidation.

The scheme looks likely to complete later this year, with all 34 units now being available on the open market.

Permission was granted yesterday for a 39 storey hotel in Docklands on Marsh Wall. The scheme will comprise 305 hotel beds and include a swimming pool, spa and gym on the 35th floor. Included in the S106 payments are £424,627 towards Crossrail, £30,000 towards the Olympic volunteering programme, £108,000 towards the council's 'leisure marketing and promotion' as well £30,250 towards Tower Hamlets 'business tourism marketing'. In total £1,660,000 will be offered in S106 contributions, an increase of £400,000 since last year when a similar scheme was refused. The developer is Marsh Wall Chelsea, a joint venture between parties which should hopefully become more obvious in time.

In other docklands news and just along the road, lies the City Pride pub. Glenkerrin bought the site for £32million back in 2007. They then got Norman Foster to design what would be the tallest residential development in the UK (if built of course), it will provide 430 residential units along with 203 hotel rooms. It's now thought Glenkerrin want to sell the site and have been quietly marketing it to a number of investors, looking for at least £30m. Tomorrows EG has the full story.

Looking increasingly sinister, this is Lots Road power station a few days ago, still undeveloped...

 815 resi units still in the pipeline. But I wouldn't say that there was no activity on site. Have a close look at the bottom right of the picture... here's a magnified view:

...odd.

A fairly big start now to tell you about, no residential units within the scheme though. What there will be however is 70,000sq ft of office space, 251 hotel rooms and 673 student flats. The site is 10 East Road, just to the north of Old Street roundabout where a good deal of construction is taking place, including Eagle House; 27 storeys recently topped out and providing 276 resi units. East Road is being developed by Rocket Investments and was designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. This is what it currently looks like...

And this is how it will look when complete...

Just a reminder that the annual Open House event is on this weekend. One of the star attractions, the BT Tower is sadly all booked up now. However, there are still 730 other buildings in London that'll open their doors this weekend to chose from.

A few weeks ago I was down the Elephant, the Heygate Estate to be precise...

...all the flats look boarded up, vacant and ready for demolition as part of the £1.5 billion Elephant and Castle redevelopment project. The problem is that not all the flats are empty, some 40 residents remain, refusing to move. The knock on effect this has had is somewhat unexpected. According to yesterdays Evening Standard Southwark council is paying £22,000 to light the estate, equivalent to £550 per resident.

This is the Cube and it's going to be the next big development in the City...

...the city of Taipei that is. Skyscrapernews wax lyrical here.

After the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) 'kickstart' program was thrown in to jeopardy in April after the HCA's budget was slashed, developers have been waiting nervously to see whether their schemes will lose the cash previously promised to them.

Well, yesterday the HCA announced which schemes will still get the cash and the unlucky ones which have fallen by the wayside. 44 schemes out of the 74 original 'kickstart' schemes which were not under contract before the election purdah period began and where then put in doubt will now receive funding. This translates into over 4,800 new homes under 'kickstart' nationwide. In London the figures represent 13 of the 44 schemes and 1,986 new homes.

The full list of schemes which have secured funding can be found here:

The London schemes included are: (click on image to view larger image)

At first glance it would seem odd that the HCA are funding purely private schemes from developer, Berkeley. However these are to be built as private rented, the first of its kind in the UK. Inside Housing has the full story.

Under the deal, Berkeley Homes will set up a private rental fund that it will use to buy 555 homes it is building over the next two years and then rent them on the open market. The HCA is putting in £45.6 million through its Kickstart scheme and will then in return for the equity funding get a 20% stake in Berkeley's private rental fund.

Berkeley said the overall investment would allow it to bring forward further phases on 10 of its developments, amounting to 922 homes for private sale, and 299 affordable units, in addition to the 555 for private rent.

The HCA launched its private rented sector initiative in May 2009 with the aim of encouraging institutional investors into the private rented market. This deal with Berkeley, is the first of its kind and could form a model for future agreements.

World Architecture News if you haven't come across it before is a great source of huge masterplans and big regeneration projects taking place across the globe. Whilst browsing through it this morning, as I do now and again I came across this one, which weirdly has a striking resemblance to the Isle of Dogs.

The masterplan encompasses the redevelopment of former industrial wasteland and docks, sound all too familiar? A high-speed train station in the centre of the site is due to complete this year with the full build out of the entire scheme by 2025. We'll be lucky if Wood Wharf has even started by then.

Just to get a sense of the close similarity in size between the two sites I've mocked up on google maps a quick comparison. Both red lines on the pictures below measure 2.4km.

China of course can construct these immense regeneration schemes. Yes they've got the money but they can also clear huge communities out of areas by bulldozing their homes and moving them on with little consultation. Here we can't, we have democracy. Here's a picture of the clearing in progress. I doubt the occupiers of these houses had little say in their fate.