Spades in the ground for new homes in Old Kent Road

Cllr Johnson Situ visited Old Kent Road on Friday to see at first-hand some of the new housing schemes currently under construction.

The projects ranged from the huge 406 home development at London Square, through to a 42 home affordable housing scheme from Hexagon Housing Association.

The Old Kent Road neighbourhood is the site of one of London’s biggest regeneration programmes. It presents a unique opportunity to tackle Southwark’s housing crisis. In total, 20,000 high quality, new homes will be built in the area, 35 per cent of which (around 7,000) will be affordable including 5,000 at social rent.

The London Square development is on the site of the old Crosse and Blackwell factory in the Rich Industrial Estate just off Grange Road. It will deliver 406 new homes for the area, including 135 affordable homes.

It also includes studios and workspace for local artists and creatives, including Tannery Arts and Southwark Studios and will house a new, purpose-built gallery for local arts organisation The Drawing Room.

The Hexagon Housing development at Ethnard Road is being built on the site of former garages. This scheme will deliver 42 new homes, all of which will be affordable homes, including 14 homes for social rent or shared ownership.

This development is a model example of collaboration between the developer (Hexagon) the council and the GLA whereby a scheme which was originally earmarked as a 35 per cent affordable housing development will now be 100 per cent affordable.

Throughout the Old Kent Road regeneration area, planning permission has already been granted for more than 5,800 new homes including more than 2,000 affordable homes (38 per cent). Several of these schemes are already under construction and a further 6,000 new homes are currently in the planning pipeline.

As well as new homes, the regeneration of Old Kent Road will create a new town centre, three new parks and two primary schools. It will also create 10,000 new jobs.

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