Council set to sign off Heygate plans
Plans to redevelop an iconic housing estate in Southwark have been recommended for approval at a planning committee meeting next week.
The London borough’s planning committee will meet next Tuesday (15 January) to decide on proposals, submitted by the council’s development partner Lend Lease, for the Heygate Estate in Walworth, south London.
The council’s planning officers have recommended permission for the redevelopment is granted.
The report says that the scheme will help to consolidate Elephant and Castle as a major town centre by creating more shops, business space, and community and leisure facilities.
The plans include the creation of 2,469 homes, of which 625 will be affordable. This falls below the council’s normal requirement that 35 per cent of new homes on any development are affordable, but an appraisal has found a higher percentage is not viable.
Ten per cent of the homes will be for families, and another 10 per cent will be wheelchair accessible.
The redevelopment of the Heygate is part of the wider regeneration of Elephant and Castle. Plans to demolish the estate were tabled in 2004, and the council began the process of vacating the estate in 2008.
When Heygate was built in 1974 it offered 1,260 homes at council rents.
The scheme includes plans for several tall buildings up to 12 storeys high, and one of the largest new parks in central London in 70 years.
If the application is granted at next week’s meeting, it will be subject to a section 106 agreement and referral to London mayor Boris Johnson.
The first phase of the estate’s regeneration, the demolition of four blocks on Rodney Road, began in 2011. The project is scheduled for completion in 2025.
