How a 6-storey vision can become a 14-storey tower through the planning process

1 min read

Last May was approved a new development in York Road for a part 5, 9, 11, 13 and 14 storey providing 82 residential units (with only 7 car parking spaces and 145 cycle parking spaces located at basement level). [p.a. 2017/5818].

Advertised as a 6-storey building potential

It is interesting to see that, at the time the proposed plot was advertised, the potential development was however very different: a 6 storey building, with 39 apartments (9 affordable) with terrace or balcony and retail premises on the ground floor. The 0.25-acre site was acquired by IP Global in 2015 and proposed for sale in January 2017 for £7,250,000.

6 storey building, with 39 apartments

Approved by the Council for a 14-storey tower

It was bought by Ideal Land in 2018 and the property developer claimed that it had planning permission for a 14-storey tower, with 83 flats, each with their own landscaped balcony (see architect design HERE).

14-storey tower, with 83 flats

Amazingly, while the development is more than double the scheme initially suggested for the sale, and provides no social housing (only affordable as shared ownership or intermediate rent), the viability assessment suggests that it “represents the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing the scheme can support” according to the company in charge of the appraisal. BNP Paribas even judged that “the applicant’s profit would be in slight deficit“. What does it mean??? They loose money? NO, they make a tiny bit less than planned!

Because one thing is certain: when a site is valued £7.25m for a 6 storey building and you manage to build 14 storey on it, the profit is HUGE!

For a Council which only cares about short term and money, more units means a bigger tax (CIL and section 106 dedicated to specific projects). The initial CIL for the 6 storey building [p.a. 2013/6160] was generating c.£730,000 (+£210k in the p.a. to be allocated for affordable housing purposes) while the CIL may now be estimated c.£1,600,000.

Money could be a motivation to encourage developers to build bigger and taller. As Council officers often say: “benefits outweigh harm“!

Did you like reading this article? Help us writing more!

Clapham Junction Insider (formerly called CJAG website) has been publishing local news for more than 14 years and remains committed to providing local community information and public interest journalism.

We aim to feature as much as possible on community campaigns and initiatives, local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents and helping residents.

We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more.

Until recently, all stories, analysis and reports published have been made with the great help of many volunteers. However, at the end of the day it cost time and efforts and we are frustrated that we cannot do more: there are many subjects that we would like to cover but we need financial resources to help us providing regular information.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

2 ways of supporting our project

Do you think what we are doing is helping the community and you want to encourage us to do more? We have set up two ways of supporting our project:

  1. Paypal: For one-off contributions, you can just use your bank card. However if you wish to encourage and support us regularly with a small amount, you will need a Paypal account to set up a monthly subscription. Click here to donate.
  2. Patreon: this is a well-known membership platform that connects content creators with supporters. Mainly, it offers financial tools that let supporters subscribe to projects that give creators a predictable income stream as they continue to create content. Click here to subscribe and support us regularly.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.

View all

You might be interested in

Latest from Blog