South Poplar to be a site in new £400m housing scheme

The Chancellor has vowed to build up to 50,000 new homes. Photo: Flickr

Boris Johnson and The Chancellor have vowed to build up to 50,000 new homes. Photo: Flickr

South Poplar, Tower Hamlets, has been marked as one of twenty sites across London in a new £400m housing scheme set to create 50,000 homes on brownfield land, areas previously used for industrial or commercial purposes.

The scheme was launched at Meridian Water, an 85 hectare former industrial site in Enfield, which has the potential capacity for 5,000 new homes.

New homes will be built on “housing zones”, a process that sidesteps time-consuming planning constraints and thus significantly accelerates construction. Mayor Boris Johnson has also been allocated the power of Mayoral Development Orders to remove planning obstacles.

Johnson said: “Housing is the biggest challenge facing London’s economic development and these new £400 million housing zones will turbo boost housing supply across the capital. This major regeneration will transform communities and provide up to 50,000 much needed homes. They will support 250,000 Londoners into low cost home ownership over the next decade.”

A Labour member of the London Assembly, Tom Copley said: “Boris Johnson has utterly failed Londoners on house building over the past six years of his mayoralty. He is currently only building a third of the 63,000 new homes we need in London each year.

This is too little, too late from Boris. He’s been in office for six years now, but he is only building a third of the homes London needs to keep pace with our growing city.”

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