New Greenwich Council leader Anthony Okereke, centre, with regeneration cabinet member Aidan Smith, left, Jo van den Broek in the digger and Pocket executives
The developer Pocket Living has broken ground on its new blocks at The Heights, where 48 new flats are now being built on part of an old council car park.
New Greenwich Council leader Anthony Okereke helped launch the development alongside newly-elected Charlton Village councillor Jo van den Broek and Aidan Smith, the new cabinet member for regeneration.
Pocket, which has funding from City Hall, plans to sell them all the flats for 80 per cent of market value to people earning under £71,000 within the borough of Greenwich – meaning they tick the official definition of “affordable”, if not the dictionary definition. The company says it has 650 people who live or work in the borough who are interested in buying, and has previously said that a typical buyer would be earning about £40,000.
The blocks will sit opposite existing houses on The Heights
However, while plans to build houses on estates on Lewisham Road and Kidbrooke Park Road were scrapped, the plans for The Heights stayed in place and were passed at a planning meeting early last year. The only objector to speak was Van den Broek’s predecessor as Labour councillor, Gary Parker.
Okereke said: “Our borough is growing fast and we need homes that suit everyone, so schemes like these will be important as we tackle the housing crisis. We know demand is high for homes in Greenwich and we’re doing everything we can to deliver housing for all, and projects like this will help first time buyers get on the ladder and keep local people living, working and enjoying our fantastic borough.”
Nick Cuffe, the chief operating officer of Pocket Living, said: “Our latest research, which polled over 1,000 Londoners aged between 25 and 45 years old, found that the biggest obstacle to non-home owners is ‘house prices being too high’ at 51 per cent, while 30 per cent claim they can’t afford a mortgage and 27 per cent are struggling to raise a deposit.
“As the cost of living continues to rise it is vital that we deliver innovative housing solutions to unlock homeownership for the next generation. As such, we are proud to be delivering new homes in Greenwich and working with a council who shares our ambitions to get more Londoners on the housing ladder.”
The development is scheduled for completion at the end of next year. It is Pocket’s first in the borough of Greenwich and follows two schemes in the borough of Lewisham; at Marischal Road, off Lee High Road, and at Arklow Road in New Cross.
The blocks would sit behind two-storey homes on The Heights
Plans for 48 “micro flats” on a council car park on The Heights were approved by Greenwich councillors last night, two-and-a-half years after the proposal to sell the land to a private developer caused a political storm.
Developer Pocket Living plans to build 45 one-bedroom flats and 3 two-bedroom flats on the contaminated plot overlooking The Valley. It plans to sell them all for 80 per cent of market value to people earning under £71,000 within the borough of Greenwich – meaning they tick the official definition of “affordable”, if not the dictionary definition.
The company specialises in building small flats on awkward sites, with one-bedroom flats typically little bigger than a studio. It has been funded by City Hall under both the Johnson and Khan mayoralties, and has former Greenwich & Woolwich MP Nick Raynsford on its board.
Plans to offload sites off Lewisham Road and Kidbrooke Park Road were later scrapped, but the council pursued proposals to sell the land at The Heights after just two local residents attended a consultation meeting in 2019.
Two linked blocks of four and five storeys will be built, with two car parking spaces for disabled residents – 21 spaces for existing residents will be retained and relocated, with Pocket’s homebuyers banned from buying residents’ permits. A viability assessment supplied with the planning application suggests a one-bedroom flat could sell for £260,000 with the discount applied.
The whole site is used as a car park at present
A decision on the scheme had been due to be taken in December, but councillors voted to visit the site. The lockdown meant they had to watch a video tour instead.
Only four objections were received – including from the Charlton Society and the nearby Charlton Central Residents’ Association – but 18 supporters got in touch to back the plan; 14 of those had contacted the council in the wake of the original meeting being announced.
Possibly reflecting the internal Labour tensions around the scheme, Greenwich Council leader Danny Thorpe spoke in support of the application. “This site is one I and the council have been involved in for a number of years,” he said. “This piece of land is not one that was suitable for the council to deliver [as housing],” he said. “We were new to council house-building, we simply didn’t have the skills and experience to deal with a highly contaminated piece of land.”
Referring to those who already live on the low-rise Heights estate, he said: “When you’re looking out on a gated-off hill that has ‘hazardous – beware’ signs on, any improvement has got to be better than none.” He promised the public realm in The Heights would be “substantially improved” with funding from the sale. The estate has recently undergone a refurbishment with upgraded pathways, suggesting it would be the entrance to the Pocket site that is in line for improvements.
“It’s not often that you get to decide on a scheme that more residents support than oppose, but that is a fact,” he said. “There are 235 of our younger Greenwich residents who are registered for the chance to buy a Pocket home, which is indicative of the substantial interest that we know there will be.”
Thorpe said he had visited a similar Pocket scheme in Lewisham and all the residents had previously lived in the borough. “There were teachers, public sector workers, firemen, that shows the kind of offer Pocket can make to younger residents who are desperate to stuck in their own home, who are likely to be stuck in an HMO, and the discount means they can take that first step into home ownership.”
The flats would overlook The Valley
Conservative councillor Spencer Drury also spoke in support, telling the committee that Greenwich’s housing cabinet member, Anthony Okereke, had suggested he visit a Pocket development at Sail Street in Kennington. “What a high-quality build we would be seeing – the communal spaces are genuinely well-designed and form a good basis for a community. This is a really useful, valuable addition to the affordable homes in the borough,” he said.
The only objector to speak was local councillor Gary Parker. He told the committee: “This site has been unused since the Second World War, even in the heyday of council house building this wasn’t built on. What information has Pocket got that previous generations of [council] officers didn’t?”
Parker also raised questions about the developers’ consultation, citing The Charlton Champion’s report that residents’ groups in Greenwich appeared to have been contacted rather than ones in Charlton.
Pocket’s chief development officer, Nick Williams, described the company’s work as a “public-private partnership”, and said a typical Pocket buyer would be earning about £40,000.
“Many of our residents come from private rented HMOs – moving into a single person’s flat makes a big difference to their life chances,” he said.
The flats will sit above an old chalk pit that now contains Charlton Athletic’s ground and the Valley Grove estate
Williams said the homes would be affordable for 42,000 households in Greenwich borough, including 10,000 key workers; he cited a hospital doctor who had moved 11 times in 10 years before moving into a Pocket home in Walthamstow. “Typically people live for five, six, seven years in a Pocket property,” he said. “Some people from our first scheme in 2008 are first there 13 years later.”
He added that 700 residents as well as groups and amenity societies had been contacted by Pocket about its plans.
Councillors were also told by an engineer working for Pocket that the technology to deal with the contaminated land had improved since the Heights estate was developed, and that controlled modulus columns would be used to stabilise the land, on the edge of a former chalk pit.
All nine councillors voted for the scheme, but two said they were doing so reluctantly – Kidbrooke with Hornfair councillor Norman Adams raised concerns about the contamination, while Abbey Wood councillor Clive Mardner said that homes available to people earning £71,000 were “not helping to resolve our housing crisis in Greenwich, because local people are not going to be able to afford that”.
Charlton councillor Linda Perks backed the scheme, saying while there had been worries about the proposal at first, “I feel that the concerns that have been answered. I can’t speak completely for the community but a lot of people will have been reassured by the effort that has been put in.”
Fellow Labour councillors Denise Hyland, Stephen Brain, Ian Hawking and Mehboob Khan joined her in supporting the scheme, along with Conservatives Nigel Fletcher and Geoff Brighty.
Update: A decision on this was postponed so councillors could visit the site.
Controversial plans for 48 “pocket homes” on The Heights will go before Greenwich councillors next week – with planning officers recommending they allow the development on an estate car park.
Developer Pocket Living plans to build 45 one-bedroom flats and 3 two-bedroom flats on the contaminated plot overlooking The Valley. It plans to sell them all for 80 per cent of market value to people earning under £71,000 within the borough of Greenwich – meaning they tick the official definition of “affordable”, if not the dictionary definition.
The company specialises in “compact flats” – its one-bedroom flats are little bigger than a studio flat. After six months, Pocket will be allowed to market them across London at limits set by City Hall, which has been giving funding to the company under both the Johnson and Khan mayoralties. Former Greenwich & Woolwich MP Nick Raynsford is among its directors.
As well as the funding it has received from City Hall over the years, Pocket is asking to be excused from paying the Community Infrastructure Levy – a charge on property developers which is reinvested in local facilities.
Two linked blocks of four and five storeys are planned for the site, with two car parking spaces for residents – 21 spaces for existing residents will be retained and relocated. The blocks will be next to the two-storey homes of The Heights estate.
The Charlton Society has lambasted the scheme. It said: “The proposal would harm and block views across London. The land stability issues are unresolved and the ground is unstable.
“The massing does not respect the local context. Worse, in our view: it actively insults it. The proposal is best regarded as a case of over-development, given its context.”
It added that the land should be used for green space instead.
The blocks would sit behind two-storey homes on The Heights
Transport for London has objected to the scheme, saying there are too many car parking spaces as the existing facilities are underused.
However, Greenwich’s planning officers say they are happy with the decontamination plans and the stability of the site. Officers quote a report from Pocket which says: “The homes will meet an affordability gap by providing options for those who would not be able to afford a Shared Ownership / Private Sale home.
“It is noted that based on previous schemes, Pocket Living have detailed that typical purchasers are likely to be 50% key workers, 69% earning less than £46,000 and had rented within the private sector for 8 years prior to buying.”
The officers add: “The design quality of the proposal is of an appropriate standard that works well with the existing building as well as the wider character, form and scale of the surrounding area and the visual amenity of the street scene.
“The impacts of the proposed development upon the amenity of neighbouring occupants have been assessed and have been found to be acceptable.
“Overall, the proposal is considered to be an acceptable redevelopment of an underutilised site.”
Councillors will discuss the development at the planning board meeting next Tuesday.
The blocks would sit behind two-storey homes on The Heights
Controversial plans to build homes little bigger than studio flats on Greenwich Council land at The Heights have been submitted to town hall planners.
Pocket Living plans to build 48 flats on land currently used for car parking space. It specialises in building “compact flats” – 40 of the planned homes will be one-bedroom apartments of just 39 square metres, designed for one person to live in. Planning guidance gives the minimum size for a studio flat as 37 square metres. All 48 homes will have shared living rooms and kitchens.
This Pocket development at Marischal Road, Lewisham, was completed in 2016
The flats are designed for first-time buyers, and would be sold at 20 per cent off market rates to Greenwich borough residents – meaning they qualify as “affordable” housing. Pocket developments have already appeared in Lewisham and New Cross, but this is the company’s first scheme in Greenwich borough.
Two linked blocks of four and five storeys are planned for the site, overlooking The Valley, with two car parking spaces for residents – 21 spaces for existing residents will be relocated. The blocks will be next to the two-storey homes of The Heights estate.
Greenwich Council had hoped to sell three plots of land to Pocket, investing the proceeds in new council housing elsewhere. But proposals to sell land off Lewisham Road and Kidbrooke Park Road were abandoned after protests from residents and Labour councillors. Of 41 Labour councillors in post at the time, 12 attended a protest meeting at Charlton House. Many were angry that the council was not developing the land itself or handing the site to Meridian Home Start, its spin-off housing company.
However, plans for The Heights, which sits on contaminated land that Pocket will have to clean up before it starts work, have continued.
Greenwich Council plans to sell this land at The Heights for private housing
Greenwich Council can press ahead with the controversial sale of public land at The Heights despite concerns that only two residents attended consultation events.
The authority backtracked on its original proposals to sell off garage sites at the Orchard Eastate in Lewisham and Kidbrooke Park Close following protests from residents and councillors.
The plans sparked a backlash with neighbours concerned primarily about parking, and with elected officials over the use of a private developer – Pocket Living – instead of building council housing.
A scrutiny panel approved the schemes in principle last night despite concerns about the council’s assumption that because few people in Charlton bothered to reply, there was little opposition.
Only 14 people replied to the consultation in Charlton, with six people disagreeing with the sale, and drop-in sessions were only attended by two residents.
Director of housing Jamie Carswell said: “There has been widespread support that there needs to be more homes in the borough. I had to weigh up that – which is borough-wide – against the level of sentiment at each particular site.
“Not to dispute that there was a small number of people responding, but I had to weigh up that lack of concern, against the overwhelming necessity for housing in general.
“This was always going to be a decision made on balance. Balancing this up, the overwhelming positivity for housing or the naturality at the Heights, that is the balance of this recommendation.”
The land between The Heights and Sam Bartram House is contaminated
Charlton councillor Gary Parker called for more consultation to be done and questioned why Pocket had been allowed to embark on a PR drive complete with template support emails.
He said: “Pocket produced a website with a model email and produced Facebook ads and other ads to support their case. I have real concern that developers with a commercial interest have tried to influence a public consultation.
“This was a consultation about the sale of public land. In Charlton, whatever way this is spun round, only two people supported it. The Heights was a neglected estate for a long time, socially isolated with very vulnerable people there. There is a history of anti-social behaviour, all of this has contributed to the low consultation rate.
“I think you have to do further consultation work in this area. You can’t read any conclusions from this.”
Housing bosses said they threw out responses submitted through Pocket’s PR drive, none of which were considered as part of the consultation.
Councillors were told that another consultation would not change the results, citing a lack of community and opposition on the estate as a reason for the low turnout.
Chris Kirby, cabinet member for housing, said: “We ran the same consultation across all estates. Everyone had the same opportunity.
“I believe this was an exemplary consultation – people have had the opportunity to have their say, when there have been strong feelings they have told us and we have listened.
“People do not tend to overwhelmingly respond to something they don’t think is going to affect them.”
The land at The Heights is contaminated and would be too expensive for the council to build on, but specialist developer Pocket believes it can build 45 one-bedroom flats on the site.
Councillors voted to approve the recommendations but told the cabinet member to ask Pocket to build some two-bedroom homes.
Did you take part in the Pocket consultation in Charlton? If so, let us know in the comments.
Tom Bull is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich. The Local Democracy Reporter Service is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media. See more about how The Charlton Champion uses LDRS content.
What has Charlton ward councillor GARY PARKER been up to? Here’s his latest report.
Dear Charlton Residents, this is my current ward report, this is a snapshot of my recent activities it does not cover individual case work or a range of other meetings. I try to highlight a few key activities which maybe of general interest. Please contact me direct if you want more information: gary.parker[at]royalgreenwich.gov.uk; Twitter: @CllrG2013.
Charlton Society – I attended the Charlton Society meeting on redevelopment and regeneration of the village and surrounding areas, together with my co-councillors and other officers from the Charlton Society, some good ideas came forward, I will be working with the CS and others to develop and support these ideas wherever possible. A meeting is scheduled in the near future with council officers and we gave the Charlton Society some information about current funding opportunities through the council – more below.
New Funding- Charlton-based organisations or those that support Charlton residents can now bid for new funding from the council this includes the ward budget – your ward councillors want to give money to as many local organisations as possible within the £30,000 budget allowable and also from the Community Infrastructure Levy (to be launched on 17 September) – a fund from actual development to support local neighbourhoods. There is over £109k to support projects in four wards including Charlton. This is a one year fund with more money available next year – for more info see www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk.
Planning & Development Issues – I have been working with local groups and individuals regarding a range of planning issues, yet again. I opposed the recent application by Rockwell and spoke at the planning board meeting on this in July as did many local residents. The application was rejected but since then, the Mayor of London has ‘called in’ the decision for review, as he claims that Greenwich has not been achieving its affordable housing targets. In my view this call in is a challenge to local democracy, the planning board, who I have been sharply critical of in the past, did the right thing as did local residents. There is a large group of residents, community organisations, businesses and groups in the area actively opposing this development – I will support them as much as I can. If the application is upheld by the Mayor I will be encouraging the council to seek a judicial review on this issue. I will continue to campaign vigorously on this issue, which is now as much about local democracy as it is about planning issues and defending local communities against big developers.
Pocket Homes – Pocket Living is a property development company supported by the Mayor of London which builds homes for sale to first time buyers at reduced prices. The Council cabinet took a decision on 16 July to go out to consultation with residents on the sale of three plots of land to the company at three sites – in Blackheath Westcombe, Greenwich West, and The Heights in Charlton. I called in this decision with Cllr Fletcher from Blackheath ward, a “call-in” is a council process by which councillors can ask for decisions to be reviewed. I have some specific concerns which I raised about: social value, the impact in Charlton ward, land contamination at the site and the nature of the consultation. Many local residents attended this meeting and they too voiced their concerns. Since then this issue has featured significantly in social media and in the local press.
Events & Engagements – A selection
I attended two Better Together Community Engagement events covering Charlton.
I attended the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust board meeting on 17th July and raised a number of local issues including parking charges at Charlton House and access to the archives for local residents and historians – I will issue a separate report on the trust soon.
I support the John Roan- anti academisation campaign and attended the picket line to support striking workers in July.
I attended and supported the new Greenwich Housing Forum which held an open public meeting about housing issues in the Borough – I estimate nearly 100 people attended- more info @greenwich_forum
I chaired the Council’s Regeneration Scrutiny Panel on 23 July – it reviews policy and executive actions on regeneration issues in the borough.
I held a meeting with the council’s deputy chief executive about the Woolwich Creative District and other heritage and regeneration issues in the Charlton area on 24 August.
SURGERIES/CASEWORK – Raised a very large amount of housing and planning related casework, community safety and crime related issues which is ongoing. I also dealt with some issues in Charlton Park related to alleged drug dealing and anti -social behaviour and continued graffiti and vandalism around the toilets. I am concerned about the escalation of such behaviour in Charlton Park and am working with my co-councillors to address this issue.
COUNCIL – I also attended the July 2018 full council meeting and the main overview and scrutiny panel meetings of which I am a member. This received reports from senior council officers and cabinet members about major issues in Greenwich.
The plot of land sits above The Valley and Sam Bartram House
Greenwich councillors have voted to sell car parking spaces at The Heights to a private developer, promising to invest the proceeds in new council housing.
The small plot of land, which overlooks The Valley, will be sold to developer Pocket Living, subject to a consultation with council tenants who live nearby.
Pocket believes it can build 45 one-bedroom flats in a four-storey building.
Greenwich Council’s cabinet also voted to sell two other plots of land to the same company – one off Kidbrooke Park Road and the other on the Orchard Estate in Lewisham, providing 151 one-bedroom flats across the three sites.
The developer, which specialises in “affordable compact homes for first time buyers”, will sell the homes to Greenwich residents at a 20% discount, with a covenant in place to ensure they cannot be sold for a year after purchase. No parking permits will be issued to buyers.
The entrance to the site from The Heights The land between The Heights and Sam Bartram House is contaminated
80% of the proceeds from the sale will go into new council housing, with the remainder being used to improve the immediate area in the housing estates affected.
Residents currently use the land for car parking and recycling
Regeneration director Pippa Hack, the senior council officer in charge of the scheme, said developing all three sites would deliver between £100,000 and £130,000 in council tax receipts.
“All the homes will be for sale to people who live or work in the borough, and 70% of buyers who buy through Pocket have incomes of up to £40,000. They will be sold at 20% discount compared to the local market, there will be a restrictive covenant that secures the properties in perpetuity, so there will be no sub-letting or no sales in year one,” she added.
Asked by deputy leader David Gardner what the council would do if the consultation revealed significant opposition to the scheme, Hack said officers would need to judge if the concerns outweighed the benefits of the scheme.
Cabinet member Averil Lekau added: “It seems obvious to me that you will listen to the views of residents and you will weigh that up. We would never say we would go to consultation unless it was meaningful.”
Leader Danny Thorpe said: “There have been some comments online about these particular schemes and our decision to dispose of the land; I would point out that on The Heights in Charlton, that is actually contaminated land that we are looking to dispose of; and while I appreciate that there have been some concerns about that, we have to address the housing crisis in any way we can.
“The land we are looking at here is land that we haven’t been able to make the best use of as an authority, so that conversation with residents will hopefully be a positive one when we explain what we’re doing.
“And also, we can utilise some money directly for us to build our own homes, council homes at social rents. It won’t provide us with the funds to provide all the homes we need, but it will provide us with some. And we have to start somewhere.”
One resident of the housing opposite The Heights plot was unaware of the scheme when The Charlton Champion visited the site on Wednesday. When told what the council was planning, she responded: “What? But we need that for our car parking!”
Tom Bull is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich. The Local Democracy Reporter Service is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media.
The Charlton Champion 