Aylesham Centre: Developer doubles down on 12% affordable housing offer

9 May 2025 Claudia Lee

A developer has doubled down on its 12 per cent affordable housing offer at a controversial development in Peckham.

Berkley Homes has launched an appeal on its application to redevelop the Aylesham Centre. This means plans are set to go straight to the Planning Inspectorate, bypassing Southwark council’s own planning committee.

Cllr Helen Dennis, Southwark council’s Cabinet Member for New Homes and Sustainable Development, said: “We’re very disappointed that an appeal has been submitted on the Aylesham planning application.

“There is significant public interest in this complex planning application and it was due to go to planning committee next month.”

An appeal on the grounds of non-determination can be made if a developer believes the local authority has been too slow to decide on a planning application.

But, cllr Dennis said: “The council met all the relevant timetables for this application and the decision to appeal against “non-determination” was entirely that of Berkeley Homes.”

*More than 600 campaigners marched from Peckham Square to the Borough Triangle in Elephant and Castle, holding banners and placards which read “homes for people not for profit” (Picture: SHAPE)*

The developer submitted a planning application to build 867 new homes on the site of Rye Lanes Aylesham Centre in summer 2024.

But by December, Berkely Homes cut its ‘affordable housing’ offer by more than 70 per cent – from 270 to just 77.

At the time, a spokesman said the decision came as a result of rising costs, “exacerbated by the length of the planning process”.

There are currently more than 4,000 households in Peckham and the nearby area on the waiting list for social housing. They join more than 18,000 families waiting for council housing across the borough.

Southwark council’s local plan includes a target for 50 per cent of all new homes to be social rented and intermediate homes. The policy states that developments must contribute a minimum of 35 per cent affordable housing, but the target is “subject to viability”.

Cllr Dennis said: “The decision by Berkeley Homes to reduce the affordable housing offer was the reason the council had to reconsult on the scheme this year.

“We have clear expectations that all planning applications in Southwark must meet the needs of our borough, including our policies and requirements for green space, local business, transport and affordable housing.”

*The SHAPE Coalition previously held a 600 strong protest through Peckham in March against unaffordable developments (Picture: SHAPE)*

This comes as campaigners from the SHAPE Coalition organise to fight back against the development with a demonstration planned for Wednesday.

Tanya Murat, 57, chair of Southwark Defend Council Housing (SDCH), said: “Now is the time for a different kind of housing policy. The market cannot deliver the homes we need, only council housing can do that.

“We have to send a message to this government, and to Southwark council, that we won’t accept any more crumbs off the table. Stop submitting to the rule of developers.

“Their profits are not more important than people’s homes’.”

The SHAPE Coalition previously held a 600 strong protest through Peckham in March against unaffordable developments pushing up rents and displacing communities in the area.

A report on the planning application will go to Southwark council’s planning committee next month, setting out reasons why the scheme would have been recommended for refusal had an appeal not been made by Berkeley Homes.

Members of the planning committee will decide if they agree with the officer’s recommendation.

A spokesman for Berkeley Homes said: “21 weeks passed since our amendments were submitted and Berkeley has still not received a confirmed committee date from the council. Under the terms of a Planning Performance Agreement with the Council, the agreed determination period for the application expired on January 31, and no extension was requested.

“This is a site that has been earmarked for housing for 11 years now. Two previous developers failed to come up with a workable project. We have been working with the council, residents and businesses for four years and have sought to accommodate everyone’s wishes, as far as possible, while keeping the project viable. After all this time, effort and money, if Berkeley is to build homes, we have no other option but to appeal for non-determination.”

Pictured top: Aylesham centre in Rye Lane is penned for redevelopemnet (Picture: Google Street View)