Nearly 150 more shared-ownership flats are set to be included in a major Woolwich development after City Hall offered a grant to its new owner.
London Square announced last week that it had bought the remaining phases of the Woolwich Central development, surrounding the town centre’s Tesco store, from Meyer Homes.
The long-delayed plans include a 15-storey tower in front of the Tesco tower as well as blocks behind it on land that has sat derelict for more than a decade.
Work is due to start on site next year, a London Square spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire, with completion due in 2028.
Plans filed with Greenwich Council show that the new owners plan to increase the number of shared-ownership homes from 50 to 198 after qualifying for the “accelerated funding route”, a City Hall scheme to boost the number of “affordable” homes in the capital.
The number of homes for people on Greenwich Council’s waiting list will also go up, from 113 to 139. Rents will also be cheaper, switching from London Affordable Rent – about 50 per cent of market rents – to social rent, which is about 40 per cent.
The social-rent homes will also be bigger, as London Square is applying to remove studio flats and replace them with flats of up to four bedrooms. All the social rent flats will be at the rear of the site, facing the South Circular Road, while flats in the tower at the front will be for private sale.
Overall, the number of flats will be reduced from 712 to 700, with 28 per cent for shared ownership and just under 20 per cent for social rent. Taken together, this more than doubles the proportion of “affordable” housing, putting it well over Greenwich’s target of 35 per cent.
Despite shared ownership coming in for criticism from MPs in a report released in March, the increase in this form of “affordable” housing will be seen as a win by local politicians – as well as the inclusion of larger flats for families on the housing waiting list.
London Square also plans to include a roof garden on top of the tower and to swap the locations of the residents’ entrance with ground-floor commercial space.
The sale to London Square and changes to the scheme are the latest twist in a saga that has hung over Woolwich for nearly two decades. Until the 1960s most of the site was the Grand Depot Barracks before being redeveloped into council and government offices as well as a student halls of residence.
In the mid-2000s Tesco came forward with a plan to build a superstore, flats and new offices for Greenwich Council. The resulting Woolwich Central development was panned by critics and won the Carbuncle Cup for ugly architecture.
But the rest of the development stalled and Tesco’s development arm, Spenhill, sold out to Meyer Homes in 2015. Meyer’s plans for a development including a 27-storey tower were rejected in 2018 – despite Greenwich having originally approved a similar-sized tower for the site 11 years before. A planning inspector endorsed the council’s decision, but branded its earlier choice to approve the Tesco store “a terrible mistake”.
A revised scheme with a 15-storey block was narrowly approved in 2022, but then had to go back before councillors a year ago because it failed to meet new fire regulations.
The latest plans have yet to be approved by Greenwich Council: the separate applications can be found on the Greenwich Council planning website by searching for reference 21/3231/F.
The original Woolwich Central development is now having its cladding replaced because of safety concerns following the Grenfell Tower fire. London Square said it had secured agreement that the work would be completed before construction of its project begins.
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