Transport for London will release additional sites over the next decade to combat the financial hit from the new mayor of London’s 50% affordable housing target.
TfL’s director of property development, Lester Hampson (pictured), told the London Assembly housing committee today that the transport company would need to release more than the originally planned 75 sites over the next decade to meet the twin targets of 50% affordable homes and £1.1bn from land revenues.
He said: “The way we will address that problem is to bring more sites forward. So we are having to accelerate our programme and work much more collaboratively with the Greater London Authority to bring these sites forward.”
TfL’s existing target is to release 75 sites comprising 300 acres for the provision of 10,000 homes by 2025.
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So far only three sites have been identified for release: at Kidbrooke, SE3; Landmark Court, SE1 and Fenwick South, SW9.
A competition will be held for each site which TfL chooses not to deliver itself among the 13-strong property developer partnership team. Developers will take three-to-four months to bring a bid forward and TfL will take around one month to evaluate it, Hampson said.
This means the first resident to move into one of the homes is not likely to do so until early 2019.
Hampson said TfL was looking at ways to speed up the process, including innovative housebuilding methods, identifying smaller sites for SME buildings and collaborating with the GLA to use its planning powers.
A register of smaller sites for SME builders, which had originally been due to be released in November, will not be ready before the first financial quarter of next year.
Deputy mayor for London James Murray said the target was for 50% affordable housing overall and would not be applicable to each site. He said the homes would need to be “genuinely affordable”, defined by the mayor’s office as homes for social rent, London Living Rent and shared ownership.
He said: “While more broadly affordable could include other products which deliver a similar level of affordability, in the ones which TfL is leading on we want to see those primary products taking the lead.”
Murray added: “There’s clearly a lot more to do. This is the start of a big programme over the coming years which will be gearing up. But I think what’s important for us is to bring forward the sites which have been identified as quickly as possible, and to identify other forms of sites.”
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