Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for Holloway Prison to be used to deliver affordable housing, offering his help to the Ministry of Justice to speed up its sales process.
The 10-acre site is being marketed by the MoJ and could deliver up to 1,000 new homes.
In a letter to David Lidington, the lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice, Khan expressed fears that the site could “end up being land banked for a period” or traded instead of being developed quickly to provide new homes.
He said that the London Borough of Islington’s planning guidance for Holloway Prison shows the site could viably deliver 50% affordable housing, which would allow it to go through fast-track planning permission.
Khan added: “To achieve an early and satisfactory land receipt, confidence that the site will be built out with pace, and planning consent without unnecessary delay, I suggest that my Homes for Londoners team, which has very considerable expertise and experience in bringing sites to market, should work with your officials and advisers as this process moves forward.”
Once the marketing period closes on 15 November, the mayor suggested, his team could work with the MoJ to choose the right bid, which would not necessarily be the highest one.
If the teams decided there was no bid that met the “clear commitment to build at pace and with genuinely affordable homes for Londoners”, Khan said he would be prepared to re-run the disposal through the fast-track London Development Panel.
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