The first site in the Mayor of London’s Small Sites, Small Builders programme has been given the go-ahead by Barnet Council’s planning committee last night.
Beechwood Avenue will deliver 97 homes, 50% of which will be affordable. Brought forward by Transport for London (TfL), work on the Beechwood Avenue site is expected to start by the end of this year, led by contractor and developer Kuropatwa Limited.
London’s homebuilding sector is dominated by a small number of large developers that build the vast majority of homes across the capital. The number of small builders (those that deliver fewer than 100 homes) has halved over the last 10 years, and Sadiq wants to make small plots of publicly owned land more accessible to London’s small and medium-sized builders, including community-led housing groups, through a simple bidding process with standardised legal contracts.
Ten small TfL sites located across seven different boroughs were launched in February last year as part of the pilot These sites contribute towards the Mayor’s target for 50 per cent affordable housing across developments on public land.
There was significant interest in the pilot, with 134 bids received from 80 organisations ranging from developers and community-led housing organisations to registered providers and architect-developers. Many of the bids proposed more units than TfL had forecast.
Small Sites, Small Builders is a £13.4 million initiative of the London Economic Action Partnership and the Mayor of London. Last June, the Mayor announced an extra £3.8 million of funding for the programme, and further investment over the next four years. TfL will continue to bring forward and advertise small sites on a rolling basis, with Boroughs and other public landholders encouraged to take part.
Since becoming Mayor, Sadiq has worked with his transport agency to accelerate the release of its available land for housing development. TfL has the team, sites and programme in place to provide a long-term development pipeline, delivering an initial programme of 10,000 homes across 300 acres, with a target to start on the sites that will deliver these 10,000 homes by 2021. TfL has already submitted planning applications for more than 4,200 homes and since May 2016, 50 per cent of its sites have been affordable.
Graeme Craig, Director of Commercial Development at Transport for London, said: “We have a key role to play in unlocking our land to support the Mayor’s ambitions to create thousands of new homes for Londoners. It’s exciting to be working with small and medium sized builders and see the first of our sites through the GLA’s programme at Beechwood Avenue in Barnet progress through planning. Working with Kuropatwa Limited, we are building the homes that London desperately needs, while also generating revenue to reinvest into the transport network.”
Oliver Kuropatwa, Director of Land, Planning and Finance Origination at Kuropatwa Ltd added: “We are delighted to be working with TFL to deliver around 100 new homes as part of the Mayor of London’s GLA Small Sites Programme. TFL have worked with us tirelessly and efficiently, and their supportive collaboration has not only surpassed my expectations but is also testament to TFL’s and the Mayor’s determination to see new affordable homes delivered in London. It is exciting to contribute to the programme with the rapid delivery of this truly innovative and inspiring street based housing project and we look forward to offering every possible support to TFL and the GLA’s house building plans in the future.”
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