Just two months into the job as leader of Enfield Council, Nesil Caliskan insists its beleaguered Meridian Water project will no longer be a “pie in the sky idea”.
The Enfield Council Cabinet met last night to discuss the development’s future, after a second developer withdrew from the process, which has been in the pipeline since 2011.
Caliskan says: “I’m a new leader and one of my political commitments is getting Meridian Water back on track. I have a clear ambition to deliver 10,000 homes as part of that. So far, we have seen not much of that ambition translate into delivery. It has been far too slow.
“Last night was an important moment to demonstrate our next steps. We need to build confidence. Enfield is desperate for some movement on this.”
Hong Kong’s Pacific Century Premium Developments walked away earlier this month, after Barratt Developments – one of the UK’s largest house builders – also turned down the partnership for the 10,000 home site in late 2017.
PCPD was originally the reserve bidder, having been initially shortlisted in partnership with Willmott Dixon (WD). They withdrew amid concerns from the council over PCPD’s proposed commercial and financial terms. In addition, their decision may have been influenced by the fact that WD had pulled out of the partnership 12 months ago.
The Meridian Water project was first mooted in 2011 when Enfield began seeking investment partners to build 5,000 homes. In 2015, it changed tack and began seeking a master developer.
Now, the council has returned to its original tactic of seeking multiple partners.
However, Caliskan says that this approach makes more sense now as the council is confident it will win £120m in government funding through the Housing Infrastructure Fund this autumn. Enfield has already been shortlisted for this money as part of the GLA’s bid.
Last night, the cabinet also gave the council approval to focus on three sites immediately, including two for around 1,000 homes, through the GLA’s London Development Panel.
“It was never really the intention to work with multiple developers in 2011 and we ended up looking for one master developer. The reason this is viable now is due to our bid for £120m in investment from the government. That will go a long way towards infrastructure investment and previously we did not have that,” Caliskan says.
She adds that the GLA’s support will enable the council to speed up the procurement process for developers. “We are working with GLA development panel. Normally procurement takes 18 months, the GLA will allow us to speed that up to six to eight months. We expect to begin building in 2020 and by 2021 we expect the first few hundred homes to be complete.”
Currently, the council owns 65% of developable land on the site, having acquired a new site for £2.5m from a small, private landowner for around 20,000 sq ft.
“We need ownership of large bits of the development. Our control of 65% allows us to act as master developer and we are looking to purchase more land. We need to buy the remainder of the East Bank of Meridian Water and we are going to need to buy land to enable us to deliver the strategic road network after hopefully receiving the government investment.”
Caliskan adds that the council is prepared to “buy all the land” if necessary. “We will buy all of it if it is needed to unlock Meridian Water but we hopeful one or more landowners will come forward.”
So far, the council has spent £225m on the development, with the bulk of the funds going towards land acquisition. It has budgeted £450m in total.
The council declined to comment on the amount spent on the master developer procurement process. However, it said “the work to date will be used to inform future procurement processes”.
This time round, Caliskan is optimistic the latest, “fundamentally” different strategy, will be successful. “We are moving away from the master developer approach which will allow for less complex bids coming forward. Crucially, we are working with the GLA to give investors and developers confidence to say, ‘Yes, we will invest in this project’.”
Whether or not the new strategy really is a success will only be determined by whether or not new developers engage in the coming months.
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