Delayed kick-off: QPR starts work on first major housing scheme at Old Oak Common
WORK has begun on the first major housing development at Old Oak Common — six years after it was identified as London’s biggest regeneration project.
More than 600 new homes for rent will be built at the Oaklands site near the Grand Union Canal at Willesden. Forty per cent of the properties will be designated as affordable.
The £175 million scheme is a joint venture between housing association Genesis and Championship football club Queens Park Rangers.
Images show how a derelict hostel site that has been unused for a decade will be turned into a new neighbourhood, with the first residents moving in by 2020. The Cargiant dealership, another land owner in the area, plans to submit a planning application for its larger Old Oak Park scheme next year. QPR had hoped to build a new 40,000-seater stadium at the Cargiant site but was rebuffed. The club is still looking for a suitable site for a new home in the Old Oak and Park Royal regeneration area.
As well as the new homes, Oaklands will provide 3,500 sq m of commercial space and public spaces.
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said: “We own other sites in Old Oak and want to bring them forward as quickly as possible to create the homes and affordable homes that London desperately needs.”
He added that “additional early housing development” would also help “achieve our ultimate goal, which is to secure the future of QPR in west London through the construction of a new stadium with sporting, community and educational facilities that are used all year round.”