L & Q __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Power Station, Barking Riverside is now a vibrant, rapidly growing neighbourhood of presently 3000 homes. L & Q are developing this strategic land in conjunction with our partners and there are plans to increase density at Barking Riverside and deliver around 20,000 new homes by 2045.
“ Another challenging project is the remediation of the ex-Walthamstow Stadium site where residents are still insitu. We’ re bringing these homes up to our required safety, environmental, and policy standards and we’ ve completed 165 of 294 so far.
“ Also, in collaboration with Plumstead College, we’ re redeveloping the Greenwich campus and adding much needed housing to the area. At present the construction of the new college is nearing completion and we will soon be demolishing the existing ones to add 258 homes to the site, with 129 being affordable.
“ We’ re uniquely placed to work with other local authorities, demonstrated by our collaborative agreement with the London Borough of Merton. We’ ll provide development management services and also construct the borough’ s first new council homes in a generation. We believe in the importance of partnerships, and we pride ourselves on being the ideal partner to work with in both the public and private sectors.”
The biggest challenge facing the sector
As our conversation continues, Neil turns his attention to the issues facing the wider UK construction industry, especially in terms of building homes.“ While the Government has identified planning as its initial top priority, we’ d argue planning isn’ t the sole answer,” he states.“ We have excellent relationships with all the planning departments, and although we welcome these being fully resourced, we must look beyond this for more solutions.
“ A major challenge currently faced by housing associations is reduced financial capacity for development, given the essential need to invest in our existing homes and services. Together with other G15 members, we are asking the government for a ten-year rent convergence, innovative housing grants, and equal access to the building safety fund to enable us to continue to improve housing conditions and invest in desperately needed new homes. With only 12 per cent of the UK’ s housing funding currently used to build or improve homes, we need extra financial support to build the homes this country requires.
“ With greater demand on the Building Safety Regulator( BSR), developers across the country are facing delays of up to one year and we currently have around five projects waiting for final approval. We’ re working with the government and attending advisory committees to help reduce this period closer to the expected time of 12 weeks.”
When we ask Neil about the future of L & Q, it’ s clear that L & Q’ s focus remains on improving services and existing homes, while in the meantime, its development division and in-house build team are building out the existing pipeline.“ Our aim is to return to building at scale in future, focusing on affordable housing in Greater London and Greater Manchester to assist with the government’ s goal of building 1.5 million homes,” he concludes.“ As a self-delivery housing association, we remain flexible and can adapt our operations to suit evolving housing needs and capacity. However, we cannot grow social housing at scale unless the Government addresses the key challenges around financial capacity.” ■
www. lqgroup. org. uk
60