Local planning authorities after a long hiatus are starting to build again. Not only that, they’re building high rise again. However, in this example from Newham, the homes are for the private rental tenure, as opposed to the traditional affordable markets that councils once built en masse.
Red Door Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newham Council, is proposing two residential towers in Plaistow, E13. An EIA application has been submitted for buildings of 13 and 21 storeys to provide 180 private rental homes, with a full application expected to be submitted in spring 2017.
The Red Door scheme allows for a unique revenue sharing mechanism, to enable future rental growth to be shared with the council, in order to subsidise the building of additional affordable housing. The business model is set up to acquire land with money borrowed from the council, which is paid back with interest.
Newham’s aim is for the company to build 3,000 new homes over the next 10 years.
A new café, supermarket, gym and neighbourhood centre are also proposed as part of the plans. The architect is Pitman Tozer Architects and the planning consultant is DP9.
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