Developer Reselton Ltd has won its planning appeal on the £1.3 billion residentially-led mixed-use scheme, designed by award-winning architects Squire & Partners, overlooking the River Thames in Mortlake, Southwest London.
The development, on the old Stag Brewery site, and adjacent to the finishing line of the world-famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, is one of the largest schemes in Southwest London. Dartmouth Capital Advisors leads it for Reselton Properties, a wholly-owned Singapore-listed City Developments Limited (CDL) subsidiary.
The scheme comprises 1068 homes in a mix of one to four-bed units, with a minimum 7.5 per cent affordable housing, with provision for multiple reviews to claw back additional affordable housing if the viability should improve during the rollout of the scheme, a 1,200 pupil secondary school academy, retail space, offices and nine-acres of green space. It delivers a Community Infrastructure Levy payment of £48m-£60m most of which is to be paid to the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames (LBRuT).
The fight to win planning consent has taken 10 years. Reselton bought the site in 2015 and, through Dartmouth, has fought a long, drawn-out battle with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, finally resulting in a planning consent on appeal.
Three different iterations of the scheme were given approval by the planning authority, LBRuT, but on each occasion that it was referred to the Greater London Authority (GLA), because of its size, it was turned down.
Guy Duckworth, development director of Dartmouth Capital Advisors, said: “Our client bought the site with the benefit of a planning brief from Richmond Council, the spirit of which our architects Squire & Partners have followed faithfully, and yet it has taken ten years to obtain a planning consent.
“Through the expert planning advice of our consultants, Newmark, LBRuT approved three planning applications, all of which were refused by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, including one scheme that his own Greater London Authority officers recommended for approval, offering a minimum of 30 per cent affordable housing and a new secondary school.”
Duckworth points out that the scheme brings a new heart to Mortlake, which, apart from the large community school, also provides a cinema, retail, a hotel and office space with an employment potential of over 300 jobs.
The school sports facilities include two multi-use games areas and an all-weather full-size floodlit football pitch, all of which are available for community use outside school hours, at weekends, and during school holidays.
New social spaces are created, including a new public park on Lower Richmond Road and a package of works to improve pedestrian and cyclist access to the existing routes around the site and level crossing safety use at Mortlake Station.
The scheme also includes a series of road improvements to ease the existing traffic congestion and opens up the site to create a publicly accessible 22-acre brownfield riverside site, which has been privately occupied and sealed to public access for centuries.
The scheme has a positive air quality status on account of its lack of fossil fuel energy consumption. The hot water and heating are generated by air-source heat pumps throughout. The planting plan for the scheme includes over 400 new trees.
© London West (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).
Sign up to receive our weekly free journal, The Forum here.
