Westminster helped Hindujas avoid affordable housing

The Hinduja brothers have been allowed to avoid planning rules that should have required them to build 98 affordable flats at their new £1.2bn luxury development in London. The brothers won approval to develop the historic Old War Office near Downing Street into 85 luxury flats and a 120-room, five-star Raffles hotel. Under planning rules the development should contain 80,000 sq ft of affordable housing – enough for 98 flats. However, Westminster City Council agreed to allow the Hindujas to develop the building with no affordable housing provision after their agents claimed that it would “not be economically feasible” to do so. The documents show that the OWO development on Whitehall has a “7,870.75 sq m shortfall in affordable housing” and “the policy-compliant payment generated by the scheme is £39.6m”. The Hindujas’ agent offered only a “£10m contribution” to the affordable housing fund. At the time of the application in 2017, the then Conservative-run council’s “viability consultant” said the suggested donation was “generous”. The Guardian