Berkeley Homes is set to submit revisions to its Old Kent Road scheme, SE15.
Plans were originally submitted in July 2017 for 1,050 homes, up to 40 storeys. Amendments to the scheme, however, propose 1,300 homes, up to 44 storeys in height. Other buildings will see an increase of up to seven storeys, according to an EIA application recently submitted to Southwark Council.
Issues around the amount of affordable housing are understood to be behind the uplift, with just 20% proposed within the 2017 application.
According to the Southwark Design Review Panel, the updated and revised scheme will provide 35% affordable housing with a 70/30 split between rented and shared ownership, in line with GLA policy.
Commenting on the proposed linear park that is designed to weave its way through the site as well as adjoining plots, the Southwark Design Review Panel said: “This has the potential to be the equivalent of the High Line in New York – a snaking linear park that has spurred real estate development in adjacent neighbourhoods, increasing real-estate values and prices along the route in an example of the ‘halo effect’.”
Opportunity Area litmus test
Last night also saw Southwark Council’s planning committee grant consent to Peabody’s Nyes Wharf scheme (below), a site that lies immediately adjacent to Berkeley’s. It is the first major scheme to go to committee within the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area, and will be seen as a litmus test – many other plans may follow.
Peabody proposes 153 homes, up to 19 storeys, with 37% affordable.
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