Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has dismissed Berkeley’s bid to increase the housing element in a proposed mixed-use scheme on the Effra site in Vauxhall, London SW8.
The site has been the subject of a bitter row between Tony Pidgley’s Berkeley Group and local Labour MP Kate Hoey. The 3.5ha site – located between Vauxhall station and the Thames – had outline planning consent for a scheme which comprised mainly offices. But through its subsidiary St George, Berkeley wanted to increase the residential component from 20% to 85%, and shrink offices from 70% to 50% on the 2.8ha (7 acre) site.
Hoey threatened to mount a legal challenge alleging that the housebuilder was trying to water down the affordable housing component of the scheme contrary to Lambeth council policy.
She argued that St George was acting unlawfully in trying to secure detailed consent for a mainly residential development based on outline planning for an office-dominated scheme. St George claimed that the detailed proposals are in keeping with the two-year-old outline consent.
In his statement Prescott rejected the application on the grounds that it was “outside the terms of the outline planning permission”.
EGi News 26/01/98
