City Hall overrules Wandsworth council to give go-ahead for housing blocks in Tooting

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Service

Permission has been granted for 449 new homes to be built at Tooting’s Springfield Village development, after one of Sadiq Khan’s deputies overruled a decision by Wandsworth council.

In a decision yesterday, Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for planning, said the project would make “a substantial and positive contribution” to London’s housing targets, despite the authority arguing it would put “unreasonable pressure on public transport and surrounding road networks”.

The scheme represents the final phase of re-developing the land around Springfield Hospital, and will bring with it an extra 2.7 acres of public open space at Springfield Park.

Wandsworth’s planning committee had voted to refuse the homes at a meeting in March, with six councillors voting to reject the scheme and four in favour of allowing it.

Along with transport-related concerns, those arguing against the project had said it would damage the “openness” of a site designated as ‘metropolitan open land’ – even though the land already has buildings on it, which form part of the hospital estate.

At a City Hall public hearing, Mr Pipe said: “We should all be aware of the urgent need to deliver more homes, and particularly affordable homes, if we’re to tackle the housing crisis and boost economic growth.

“The new government has made achieving its manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes a top priority and has set London the challenge of delivering more than 80,000 homes per year.”

The deputy mayor said the design and layout of the 449 homes had been “well considered, in the context of the site constraints” and concluded that the project would not cause significant harm to metropolitan open land.

Responding to Wandsworth’s concerns about pressures on local transport and roads, Mr Pipe’s officers found that “the uplift in vehicle trips will have a negligible impact on the surrounding highway network”.

The development will comprise 167 one-bedroom homes, 225 two-bedrooms, and 57 three-bedrooms. Of the total, almost half – 220 – would be classed as ‘affordable’, with the remaining 229 made available at market rates.

Some 839 homes had already been approved and are under construction across the wider Springfield Hospital site, meaning that the development has been boosted to a total of 1,288 properties.

Tory councillor Guy Humphries told the hearing on Tuesday that the inclusion of apartment blocks up to five storeys tall was “patently a step too far”, adding that the developer had tried to “shoehorn in” as many flats as possible, meaning that only 51 per cent of the properties achieved “minimum sunlight criteria”.

City Hall’s report said: “This level of non-compliance [with sunlight criteria] is considered, on balance, to be reasonable for a development of this scale and nature.”

Speaking in support of the application, Dr Billy Boland of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, said: “To see our surplus, derelict estate at Springfield go unused, when there is an abundant need for high-quality, affordable housing, would be a lost opportunity.”

The trust’s chief executive, Vanessa Ford, said the sale of the land would enable Tolworth Hospital, a few miles south-west of the site, to access “vital” funding.

“Tolworth Hospital has long been in the need of redevelopment. Its ageing buildings were not created for the needs of modern mental health care,” she said, adding that the scheme would enable “five new, modern wards and 100 new beds” to be delivered at Tolworth.

Pictured top: Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for planning (Picture: Greater London Authority)