The Mayor of London will now decide the fate of nearly 2,000 south London homes, after calling in two Berkeley Homes schemes that Southwark Council rejected over cuts to affordable housing.
The two schemes are the Borough Triangle in Elephant and Castle, with 892 homes across four towers, one reaching 44 storeys, on the site of the Mercato Metropolitano food market; and Bermondsey Place on Malt Street, with 1,060 homes across eight buildings between six and 36 storeys. Both had originally been approved by the council, until Berkeley Homes sought to reduce its affordable housing commitments on viability grounds — from 30 per cent to 10 per cent at the Borough Triangle, and from 40 per cent to 12 per cent for the final two phases of Bermondsey Place.
Southwark’s Planning Committee threw out both revised proposals at separate hearings, concluding they would fail to meet the significant need for social rented and intermediate homes. Berkeley Homes was accused by Councillor David Watson of “pleading poverty” over its revised Borough Triangle scheme. More than 22,000 households are on Southwark’s housing waiting list, including more than 4,200 living in temporary accommodation.
The Greater London Authority believes Bermondsey Place has the potential to make a significant contribution towards meeting Southwark’s housing targets and London’s strategic targets for net housing completions, with similar reasons given in the GLA report for the Borough Triangle call-in. When the mayor calls in an application, he becomes the formal planning authority for it and a public hearing is scheduled.
Southwark Council’s deputy leader, Councillor Victor Chamberlain, said he was very disappointed by the Mayor’s decision to call in both applications. Planning solicitor Jed Holloway of Southwark Law Centre said there are economic pressures, but that does not justify development that fails to meet need. Berkeley Homes managing director Justin Tibalidi, when Bermondsey Place was rejected last month, said the committee had overruled its own planning officers’ recommendation and blocked over 1,000 new homes and hundreds of jobs in a designated regeneration area, and that members would not acknowledge the council’s own analysis of the site’s viability challenge.
The decision on both schemes will now rest with the Mayor, rather than the council. No decision timetable has been confirmed.
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