Southern Grove is aiming to step up its delivery of affordable residential schemes in London after submitting plans for a 26-storey tower in Ealing earlier this year.
The London-focused developer is now in discussions with several other London boroughs over potential 100% affordable sites.
Southern Grove is in talks with Southwark Council over a 130-40 unit scheme, close to British Land’s 53-acre Canada Water masterplan. It has also set its sights on 100% affordable schemes in Lewisham, Brent, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets.
The firm believes its Ealing scheme, 55 West, is a model of how developers can build fully affordable and well-designed housing for Londoners. It aims to provide 149 flats to residents paying either the London Living Rent (around 60% of market rates) or using London Shared Ownership. The firm has partnered Thames Valley Housing on the scheme.
While 55 West has drawn criticism from some Ealing residents, with one deeming it a “monstrosity” which “makes a mockery of the Mayor’s vision for quality affordable homes”, Southern Grove chairman, Andrew George Southern, said these complaints are largely fuelled by nimbyism.
Southern Grove plans to use 55 West as a “backbone” to appraise other sites going forward. Chief executive Tom Slingsby said the firm had switched strategy in order to meet demand from councils for affordable housing, with London boroughs under pressure to deliver more units. Ealing alone has committed to deliver 2,500 affordable housing units a year.
He said: “When we looked at the residential market previously, we deployed more of a housebuilder model: what can we sell it for? But it made planning a bit of a struggle – instead of getting 15 storeys, you’d get 10. Now, instead of going back to the council after planning and flipping all the units to affordable, we thought we would approach them with a fully affordable scheme first. But it’s got to be the right thing for the site and the area. You can’t just make any scheme fully affordable and expect it to sail through.”
Southern added: “Going to a council for planning permission for a scheme to then trade it on is frowned upon. People look down on you if you’re not the person delivering the product.”
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