Save Earl’s Court council blocks to boost number of affordable homes, urges Mayor
SADIQ KHAN has waded into the row over the future of the £12 billion regeneration plan for Earl’s Court with a demand that two housing estates scheduled for demolition should be spared and “handed back entirely” to the local council.
The Mayor said he had
long held “serious concerns” about the 77-acre scheme, which won planning permission in 2013 and is one of the biggest redevelopment projects in London.
It is due to create 7,500 new homes, of which 6,000 will be luxury apartments for private sale and 1,500, or 20 per cent, classed as affordable. However, just over half of those will be new replacement homes for the 2,000 residents of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates. They were sold to the scheme’s developer Capital & Counties (Capco) for £110 million in 2012 by the then Conservative-run Hammersmith & Fulham council, and are due to be knocked down.
The other 740 additional affordable homes make up around 10 per cent of the total, well below Mr Khan’s target of at least 35 per cent.
The Mayor said: “I have long had serious concerns about the direction of the Earl’s Court scheme, particularly its inclusion of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates. A positive way forward would involve new plans that exclude the estates, and offer more housing, particularly more social rented and other genuinely affordable homes.
“The GLAwould review any such plans at the point at which they were referred. To ensure my concerns are addressed, my view is that ahead of alternative plans being progressed and determined, the estates should be handed back entirely to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.”
Capco revealed last week that it is in talks with Hong Kong property developer Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings about a possible sale of most of its Earl’s Court land. A separate section of the scheme called Lillie Square, south of Lillie Road, would not be included.
A Capco spokeswoman said: “The Earl’s Court Masterplan is … creating a new district that delivers thousands of new homes and jobs. The Masterplan can evolve in line with London’s needs and can deliver more housing, including more affordable homes.”
Hammersmith & Fulham council’s Stephen Cowan said: “Capco’s problem is they’re not property developers they’re property speculators … hard to see how any investor would take them seriously.”