Greenwich student blocks approved despite councillors’ concerns

Councillors raised concerns about the amount of student housing being built in the borough as they approved plans for a seven-storey development in east Greenwich.

Work on the three blocks, on the site of a former Speedy Hire branch on Woolwich Road, could start early next year, Greenwich Council’s planning board heard.

Plans for 820 rooms in a tower next to the O2 were approved a year ago, although work has yet to start, while a tower of 414 rooms by Deptford Creek was  approved in November 2023, with plans for 700 rooms on the Deptford side of the creek awaiting a decision.

In Woolwich, the old Riverside House council office is to become more than 300 student rooms, with another 400 coming on the site of the Woolwich Catholic Club. Plans for another 900 homes at Macbean Street have recently been submitted. 

The Speedy Hire development, close to the River Ale House micropub, was originally approved as conventional flats in June 2022. The scheme has now been divided into three blocks an extra storey added to one of them.

But with hundreds of student rooms having recently been approved across the borough, councillors complained that there were not enough homes coming forward to help whittle down Greenwich’s 28,000-strong housing waiting list.

There are already 94 student rooms in two blocks close to the Speedy Hire site while there are about 400 students in nearby bedsits, a report to councillors said.

Concerns were also raised about a loss of daylight to homes behind the site and whether there would be the demand for student accommodation because of a reported fall in the numbers of overseas students.

Some 190 student rooms are planned in the reworked scheme, with the eastern block topping out at seven storeys. Some 67 rooms would be designated “affordable”, which under City Hall rules is defined as up to 55 per cent of an annual student maintenance loan.

Adil Fadil Adil, the director of AVF Developments, the company behind the scheme, said that the site would be cleared later this year and construction would begin early next year. 

But Kidbrooke Village councillor Dave Sullivan questioned whether the development would actually be built.

“It seems to me that almost every planning board we have, somebody comes along with a proposal for student accommodation,” he said. “I get a bit sceptical about so many of these schemes, which are, are just another way of ramping up the value of the site without any real intention to deliver it. There’s quite a lot of these in the pipeline but can’t see any sign of of them occurring yet.”

Sam Neal, from AVF’s planning consultant Newmark, said that assessments had found there was a “significant shortfall” in student accommodation in the area, with only one bed for every four students.

Even if there was a fall in international students, he said, “year on year, there’s an increase in the amount of students that are needing student accommodation. And obviously if the developments can’t keep up with that, then the demand and supply ratio is going to get worse.”

Gary Dillon, the chair of planning, responded: “The  bigger worry for us is the fact that we’re losing family homes, wth 28,000 families – and increasing – on the increase in families on the  [waiting] list.

“Student accommodation is coming fast and furious. There’s a demand for all sorts of accommodation, but family is probably more important to us than student student accommodation, which is almost bordering on temporary accommodation.”

West Thamesmead councillor ‘Lade Hephzibah Olugbemi said she would be abstaining from the vote on the development, saying there was an “over-concentration of student accommodation”.

Pat Greenwell, a Conservative councillor for Eltham Town, voted against, calling the location “not the right place” for student accommodation and raising concerns about deliveries. 

But the development was approved at the meeting last Thursday, despite councillors’ misgivings. 

Sandra Bauer, a Labour councillor for Kidbrooke Park, supported the scheme, saying “a high street location, a busy road is probably a good place to put students”.

Dillon said that if councillors rejected the scheme, an appeal was likely to succeed.

“I will be supporting the application because student accommodation is classed as affordable and a necessity,” he said. “So trying to get this to an appeal would cost us a lot of time and money and we probably have little chance of winning because there is a precedent set from the previous application that was approved.”

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