Campaigners set to protest against Battersea Power Station multi-million pound properties during housing crisis

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

Campaigners have hit out at the £9bn revamp of Battersea Power Station and said the scheme has “done nothing” to solve the housing crisis in Wandsworth.

Studio flats on the site start at £560,000, with one-beds from £850,000. The cost of a three-bedroom rooftop villa starts at £7 million.

It comes as more than 3,500 local families were classed as statutorily homeless in the borough at the end of 2021.

The developer behind the project previously slashed the level of affordable housing from 15 per cent to nine per cent – from 636 to 386 out of the 4,239 homes planned.

Battersea Power Station Development Company claimed the project could become financially unviable otherwise.

Wandsworth council approved the cut in 2017 under its old Conservative administration.

Wandsworth Action Against Empty Homes has now called the move “disgraceful”, and urged the authority’s new Labour administration to sit down with Battersea Power Station Development Company and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to push the level of affordable housing back up.

The group will protest outside the landmark’s luxury apartments on Saturday. The campaigners want at least 15 per cent of the homes on the site to be environmentally-friendly council homes.

It comes after the landmark finally opened to the public on Friday after lying derelict for decades and following multiple failed attempts at restoration. Circus West Village, the first phase of the regeneration, which includes homes, bars, restaurants, cafés and leisure venues, opened in 2017.

Wandsworth Labour did not attend the opening after expressing frustration at the development’s low level of social housing.

The group won control of the council from the Conservatives for the first time in 44 years in May, and has long criticised the level of affordable housing in the scheme.

A spokesman from Wandsworth Action Against Empty Homes said the project had “done nothing to solve the housing crisis in Wandsworth” while thousands waited for permanent homes in the borough.

The spokesman said: “It is disgraceful that the former Conservative administration allowed this development to go through, knowing full well the numbers were rising for those seeking housing assistance.

“The new Labour administration refused to go to the opening night. The Conservatives are questioning this decision, which is why they’re in opposition, because they’re out of touch with what the community needs.”

A spokeswoman from the Battersea Power Station Development Company said: “The entire site is being transformed into a vibrant, buzzing community that will ultimately bring about 20,000 new jobs to the area.

“The iconic Grade-II listed power station itself has been saved from ruin, and we have brought in much-needed new transport infrastructure, with a new Tube line, with £300 million contributed to the Northern line extension, connecting this new riverside neighbourhood with the rest of London.

“Ninety-seven per cent of homes in Circus West Village are occupied, with 85 per cent of buyers in the past 18 months being from the UK.”

Pictured top: Battersea Power Station (Picture: Brendan Bell)