We wrote about sketchy invitation to a consultation on changes to the development plans of the Abbey Road Estate here.
Since then Camden have updated thier website with the recording of the DMF and a “virtual Exhibition page“.
Phase 1 consisted of the demolition of a mulit storey carpark with business units and the creation of 141 housing units, 66 of those at Council Rent and the rest a mixture of rental and private sale units and commercial space at ground floor level. It was evident from the DMF that the private sale properties have not all sold. Some people quoted that 30% of the private sale units were still to find buyers despite the development having been completeed in 2019.
Phase 2 consists of the relocation of the Health Centre and Community centre in the open space of Snowman House.
Phase 3 consists of the demolition of the 76 Council units, retail spaces (housing the L. Langtry Pub, Oscar’s Den and a Piano Company amongst others), the medical centre and the Community Centre. The outline permission for phase 3 was for the provision of up to 85 residential units in 6/7 storeys blocks and 15 mews houses with up to 48 affordable units as seen below.
Below is a picture of the phase 3 development that was agreed
Now the proposal for phase 3, includes 139 new homes in blocks up to 11 storeys, with only 36 Council Rent homes. This represents compared to the outline planning permission, an increase in housing units of 39 housing units and decrease in Social rent units by 12 units. Only 26% of housing units will be social rent units far below the camden target of 50%!!!!!! In the recording of the DMF there is a mention of 10 units at Camden rent, that are below the market rent but far above council rents. Even with the inclusion of these 10 units, the percentage of “affordable” units, will be 33%, again far lower than the target rate of affordable units.
So this site, including phase1, phase2 and phase 3 will remove 76 Social housing units and provide only 102 social housing units on a site that is more than double the size. The total number of houisng units will increase from 76 to 280 units. A massive increase in population density! When the 3 phases are considered the provision of “affordable” units (66+46) is still at 40% overall, which is below Camden’s own target.
These 3 sites are Council owned. One wonders why more Council rent housing units cannot be delivered! This is probably due to the fact that the GLA have stopped financing “affordable” units that involve the destruction of current “Council units”.
In summary, here is how housing units will have changed from current, to outline, to proposal for phase 3
| current | outline permission in 2014 | new proposal | |
| Council homes | 71 | 48 | 36 |
| Leasehold Council homes (private sale) | 5 | 52 | 93 |
| Camden Rent homes | 10 | ||
| total housing units | 76 | 100 | 139 |
| maximum number of storeys | 7 | 7 | 11 |
| Affordable % | 93.4% | 48.0% | 33.1% |
The revised plans are justified by a revision to suit changing housing needs in Camden. We all know that there is a large social housing waiting list, and it beggars belief to want to reduce the number of council rent units. Furthermore 30% of the private sale homes of phase1 have not sold despite being completed in 2019. So how has the demand for more private sale homes at the expense of social housing been measured?
Please feed in your comments by the 17th December 5pm here.
