Sorting office will be luxury homes

HOUSING is to be built on land next to England’s largest postal sorting depot in a £190m deal.

On the day Royal Mail Group crashed out of the FTSE 100, the company confirmed it had sold part of its Mount Pleasant site in London to developer Taylor Wimpey.

It cleared the way for almost 700 homes to be built there, largely luxury flats expected to fetch more than £1m each.

Planning permission was granted in 2015 for the scheme, which will be 24pc affordable housing.

Martin Gafsen, Royal Mail’s director of property and facilities, said: ‘The sale of our development sites at Mount Pleasant is a great opportunity for us to contribute to the regeneration of the area.

‘It will also help us secure the long-term future of our key central London operational site.’

Mount Pleasant is Royal Mail’s main base in London and one of the world’s largest sorting offices. The introduction of new machines in 2012 meant the company no longer required all of the land it owned there.

It has sold 6.25 acres to Taylor Wimpey, with 0.27 acres set aside for office space still to be sold.