- The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a search for a development partner for the St Ann’s hospital site in Haringey, through his London Development Panel.
- The Mayor purchased two-thirds (7.1 hectares) of the St Ann’s Hospital site from the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust in March 2018 using his Land Fund. The receipts from the sale allowed the Trust to invest in the construction of new, state-of-the-art facilities for patients.
- The Mayor’s plans will result in a minimum of 700 homes – with the aim for this number to be closer to 800 – of which 60 per cent will be genuinely affordable. Sadiq’s intervention will boost the number of genuinely affordable homes on the site by five times compared to the existing planning permission, which included around 400 homes of which just 14 per cent were to be affordable.
- The affordable housing since the Mayor intervened includes 50 homes set aside for community-led housing, enabling members of the community to own and control some of the homes and making St Ann’s one of the largest community-led housing schemes in London.
- Of the remaining affordable homes, 60 per cent will be at social rent levels, 20 per cent will be London Living Rent and 20 per cent will be Shared Ownership.
- The London Borough of Haringey will have the option to acquire half of the proposed homes at social rent level, meaning that the St Ann’s Hospital site could deliver at least 100 rented council homes at council rents.
- In addition to the delivery of genuinely affordable housing, the Mayor’s team has worked closely with local community group StART (St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust) to understand and reflect some of their ambitions in the plans for the site, including the protection of local green space.
- The development will also deliver key worker housing for NHS staff, with nominations for at least 22 homes for London Living Rent given to the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust for 10 years to ensure staff can be housed locally.
James Murray, Deputy Mayor for Housing & Residential Development said:
“St Ann’s is a very exciting project, which we have made sure will see hundreds of genuinely affordable homes built – including council homes, homes for social rent, and community-led housing. We are showing what can be done with the public sector taking a clear lead. We want to do far more of this, and so the Government must give us and councils the powers and funding we need to turn London’s housing crisis around.”
- The aim is to appoint a development partner in Spring 2020, with building to start on site by the end of March 2022.
- New fire safety measures will also apply to this project, with the aim of rolling these out to all projects procured through the London Development Panel in future. These include control of combustible materials in all buildings, and the registration of built-in electrical products such as white goods.
Councillor Emine Ibrahim, Haringey Council, said:
“Haringey Council supports the GLA’s proposed redevelopment at St Ann’s. The council has been clear that it wants a significant number of council homes on the site for the purpose of delivering on our commitment to prioritise council housing as our preferred tenure. We look forward to working with the GLA and the community to ensure that the scheme is the best possible for Haringey and for residents.”
Joanne McCartney, London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey said:
“The significant increase in the number of genuinely affordable homes (including council homes) for local people is very welcome and marks a major step-change from what was originally proposed. Going forward it is essential that the chosen developer works closely with the local community to create an exemplar housing scheme.”