What none of the articles about this mention is that this particular development is one which has resulted from the office to residential 'prior approval' procedure, which allows offices to be converted into residential units without requiring planning permission, and the only matters that the Council can take into consideration are flood risk, contaminated land and transport/parking. No requirement to provide either on-site affordable units or an off-site contribution etc.
There's a similar (albeit) considerably smaller scheme in Brentford Market Place where the units created are significantly below minimum planning policy standards in terms of both overall unit size and room sizes, but because it's a prior approval Councils are powerless to refuse on such grounds.
Don't get me wrong, I've secured plenty of prior approvals for clients myself, but none of mine involving providing what is essentially 'substandard' units - it does show how 'sick' the London market has become when people are happy to spend £200k just to own a glorified matchbox. |