Blow for home seekers in Peckham as affordable housing numbers are slashed

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A developer has slashed the number of affordable homes in a regeneration scheme by over two thirds.

Berkeley Homes has notified Southwark council that it intends to reduce the amount of affordable properties in its Aylesham Centre development in Peckham from 270 to just 77.

The percentage of affordable housing planned for the site by Rye Lane would shrink to 12 per cent from the previous 35 per cent, under the revised proposals.

Councillor Helen Dennis, the Labour-run authority’s Cabinet Member for New Homes, branded the changes ‘very disappointing’ and said there was a ‘huge need’ for more affordable homes in the neighbourhood.

She said: “Peckham is one of many areas in our borough with a severe need for genuinely affordable homes. There are more than 4,000 households in Peckham and the nearby area on the waiting list for social housing. Good homes transform lives, and every affordable home not built is a lost opportunity to give local people a decent place to live.

“We are clear about our 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 genuinely affordable housing.”

The developer’s amended proposals for the site, which includes the 1980s Aylesham Centre and a Morrisons store, would also see a Community Land Trust (CLT) scrapped. The CLT would have provided low cost locally-designed housing.

Berkeley’s original plans for the site, published in the summer, included bulldozing of the Aylesham Centre and the current supermarket. The buildings would be replaced with a new Morrisons store, as well as 878 homes plus shop and restaurant space.

The development included plans for 13 buildings up to 20 storeys high. Berkeley committed to a quarter of the new homes being available at the cheapest social rents in the original proposals.

A petition set up by a group called Aylesham Community Action in May, which demands that at least 50 per cent of flats in the development are social housing, has attracted almost 5,000 signatures on change.org.

Berkeley’s revised proposals for the site with the reduced level of affordable housing are set to go before a Southwark council Planning Committee in the Spring.

If the proposals are approved, work on the first stage of the redevelopment is due to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2029.

Pictured top: CGI of new Morrisons store wedged between apartment blocks (Picture: Berkeley)