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Housing association buys Holloway Prison site for 1,000-home scheme
The former site of Holloway Prison has been bought by a housing association to build 1,000 new homes, 60% of which will be for affordable housing.
Peabody has bought the land from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and now plans to build the 1,000 homes in partnership with developer London Square.
Of the affordable homes, 70% will be for social rent and the rest will be for either shared ownership or London Living Rent.
The site in the London Borough of Islington was formerly home to a women’s prison and has been a cause of significant local interest over the past few years.
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Local residents, the council and London mayor Sadiq Khan have all said that at least half the homes built on the site should be affordable.
Peabody said its development will also deliver local shops on Pankhurst Road and Camden Road, as well as a women’s centre – a request from feminist campaigners endorsed by Islington Council. It also said its plans will be developed with local residents and community groups.
The housing association plans to begin building work by 2022 and provide the first affordable homes in 2026.
Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of Peabody, said: “We are committed to working with Islington and [City Hall] to deliver an exceptional new housing scheme on this historic site. We are pleased to confirm we will deliver a 60% level of genuinely affordable homes, integrating existing Islington communities with a new Peabody estate.
“As well as providing new homes we will also ensure social infrastructure and placemaking are at the heart of our proposals. We are pleased to be working with London Square, which is a continuation of our longer-term relationship across a number of sites in London.”
Mr Khan was involved in the deal, providing a £42m loan to Peabody to help it buy the land. City Hall said that this enabled the proportion of affordable housing to rise from 50% to 60%.
Mr Khan said: “For too long, Londoners have rightly been fed up of seeing public land sold off to the highest bidder and then developed with little or no social or affordable housing. We have made sure the Holloway Prison site will be different.
“Our groundbreaking loan to Peabody means the majority of new homes on this site will be genuinely affordable – with around four in 10 of all new homes being for social rent. We’ve developed planning policies with the council that support this and that also set out how the development should include public green space and a new centre for women.”
Peabody bought the site as part of the MoJ’s Prison Estate Transformation Programme, which involves reorganising existing prisons and building new prisons to create spaces for 10,000 more prisoners.
Prisons minister Rory Stewart said: “The sale of Holloway will help drive forward our commitment to replace ageing prisons with modern, purpose-built establishments. I am determined to see this money reinvested to improve rehabilitation and ultimately reduce reoffending.”
