New property plans for the former Scotland Yard site have been turned down by the Mayor of London after they were described as providing “unacceptable” levels of affordable housing.
Sadiq Khan stated that the number of luxury homes should not be permitted to grow from 27 to 295, especially as the number of affordable properties was not simultaneously being increased.
The proposed scheme to regenerate the previous Met Police headquarters includes just ten affordable dwellings – representing 4% of the total amount.
If planned changes from developer BL Development were accepted, this percentage would drop by a further 1%.
Due to his recruitment of viability experts, the administration of Mr Khan has led to much higher scrutiny of planning applications, with the team analysing the proposals closely for the level of affordable housing.
Branding the scheme as unacceptable, Khan stated: “The scheme put forward for this site is simply unacceptable: it fails to provide the maximum amount of affordable housing that could be delivered on this landmark site, and follows a previous application in which the affordable housing provision agreed by the previous Mayor was already appallingly low.
“This is a site which has only recently been transferred from public ownership and sits within one of the most expensive areas of the country. Having carefully considered the evidence available to me, I have decided to refuse permission for this amended application”.
