Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced last June that 20 housing zones with relaxed planning restrictions would be created across the capital, to help deliver 50,000 new homes by 2025. London boroughs submitted bids last year, putting forward areas to be designated as housing zones and receive a share of £400 million in loans from the GLA and central government towards the cleaning up of brownfield sites and the delivery of infrastructure to allow rapid development.
The GLA announced the first nine housing zones on Friday. The zones will receive a total of £262m towards 52 schemes which are expected to deliver around 28,000 new homes over the next 10 years.
The new zones include the Clapham Junction to Battersea Riverside housing zone, across 23 hectares of land in Wandsworth. More than 5,300 homes will be built within the zone under Wandsworth Council's plans, including new homes for all existing tenants of the Winstanley and York Road estates. The Council also plans to upgrade the transport hub at Clapham Junction, build a new pedestrian bridge across the river Thames and provide new leisure and community facilities.
More than 5,000 new homes are being proposed for construction within the Heart of Harrow housing zone, covering Harrow and Wealdstone town centres in west London. Another 4,345 homes, including 1,785 affordable homes, are expected to be built in the Southall housing zone in Ealing, and Hounslow Council intends to provide nearly 1,400 affordable homes among the 3,478 proposed within its Hounslow Town Centre housing zone.
The London Borough of Haringey was successful in its bid to have the area around Tottenham Hale station designated as a housing zone, to help deliver almost 2,000 homes towards the 10,000 planned for Tottenham by 2025. Barking town centre has also been designated for the delivery of more than 2,000 homes following a successful bid from Barking and Dagenham Council.
Lewisham council will receive funding to support transport improvements and the construction of a new neighbourhood of nearly 2,400 homes in the New Bermondsey housing zone. A new boulevard, a new town centre for Thamesmead and more than 1,300 homes are expected to be delivered in the Abbey Wood and South Thamesmead housing zone in Bexley. The Royal Borough of Greenwich, has outlined plans for around 1,500 new homes, 44% of which would be affordable, within the Abbey Wood, Plumstead and Thamesmead housing zone.
"As London's population continues to boom, already at its highest since records began and with more growth predicted, housing is a huge challenge," said Johnson in a statement. "We need to double housebuilding and provide a million more homes by 2025."
"These innovative new housing zones, the first of their kind in the UK, will trigger regeneration and turbo boost the transformation of the capital's brownfield sites, creating tens of thousands of new homes for hard working Londoners in first class new neighbourhoods," Johnson said.
The remaining 11 housing zones are expected to be announced by the end of the summer.