Report urges transport hub development in London

A new report is calling on local authorities, Transport for London and Network Rail to consider development around and at London’s railway and Underground stations to accommodate the capital’s population growth - but warns that there are significant challenges in doing so.

Ideas above your Station, published by think tank Centre for London, investigates methods, costs, and benefits of developing new residential buildings above existing railway and Underground infrastructure, particularly stations.

It finds that there are opportunities at many stations to create what it calls “sustainable high-density development”, and that if the right method of funding can be found, such developments could cross-subsidise improvements to stations and rail infrastructure.

The report recommends that the Greater London Authority (GLA), TfL and NR should prioritise work to identify public land ownership around stations - particularly those expected to receive or require major investment in the future. The GLA, meanwhile, should ensure that plans for rail and Underground upgrades are incorporated into long-term planning tools, so that opportunities for development can be anticipated, planned for and co-ordinated.

Other recommendations for the Mayor of London, the GLA and other scheme promoters such as HS2 are that new stations should include provision for over or nearby station development; that the GLA should define ‘station intensification areas’ in its London Plan as a strategic priority around key stations, setting higher minimum density and design standards in these areas; and that the GLA should consider establishing Mayoral Development Corporations or project development vehicles, to provide resources and expertise to make the most of development opportunities with new rail schemes.

The final recommendation is that a tailored approach to affordable housing in over-station developments should be adopted, to make developments viable. This could mean offering lower than mandatory levels of affordable housing in a specific development, compensated for by offering increased levels elsewhere.

Funding is said to be a challenge, but the report’s authors suggest that if a local authority could retain even a quarter of Stamp Duty receipts from the sale of property, even higher levels of estimated costs could be met. They argue that some form of retention of property taxes would also represent a “significant incentive” to fund a station densification project.

Centre for London Research Director Richard Brown said: “Planning such development alongside new rail lines, including adjacent land, allowing higher densities or ring-fencing some of the tax revenues resulting from new development, could enable such projects to deliver a return on investment.”