Wembley Matters contributor, Philip Grant, has been assiduous in following the proghress (or lack of it) of the Wembley Housing Zone in Wembley High Road/Cecil Avenue. The main theme is the lack of truly affordable housing with the amount diminishing over the years when Brent could have acquired much more. See LINK for one of the main articles and the adjacent search box for more. (Search for Wembley Housing Zone).
Now the mainly private development (and the developer through increased value of the development) will benefit from plans for a courtyard and community centre/centres on the site to be paid for by Brent Council.
There are very few details about the community centres (there are two options) in the documentation. The developer Wates would contribute Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy monies to Brent Council but Brent Council would use this to enhance the scheme through outside community space and a community centre. Additional monies woud be needed from SCIL for the more expensive option:
The proposed capital contribution of up to £11.23m SCIL is necessary to deliver the infrastructure elements of the scheme. The Wembley Housing Zone development is itself estimated to generate £5.267m Brent CIL receipts and Wates are liable to pay this sum. Therefore the net additional SCIL ask to the Council to fund the infrastructure elements of the scheme for Option#1 is £2.6m and for Option#2 is £5.96m. The Council has sufficient Strategic CIL reserves to meet this request.
As reported to Cabinet in August 2021, the Council can retain and lease the commercial and community space on the WHZ scheme, or dispose of it for a one-off capital receipt. Requested costs at Appendix 1 present two options, both of which would deliver the publicly accessible courtyard. Option #1 at £7.87m would also designate one flexible community and commercial space for the new community centre. Option #2 at £11.23m would however designate both flexible community and commercial spaces for a larger new community centre. Marketing of the commercial and community spaces will determine the range of occupiers interested in the WHZ scheme, and on what terms. Whether or not it is in the Council’s best interest to pursue Option 1 or Option 2 will depend on market demand and the balance of socioeconomic and financial outputs that can be delivered.
This is a substantial sum of money from SCIL but the Officers' report states there are sufficient funds in the account to cover the cost:
There is a foreword to the Officer's Report by Cllr Shama Tatler which in my view amounts to a Brent Council party political broadcast during an election period (or parliamentary candidate pitch) but has been defended by the Brent Council CEO as clearly separate from the officers' contribution. See the Report and Foreword HERE,
Extract from Shama Tatler's Foreword:
Working in partnership with Wates Construction and the Mayor of London,
Brent Council is delivering on its longstanding commitment to revitalise the
eastern stretch of Wembley High Road. This report sets out how we will embed
community use at the heart of our regeneration plans for the Wembley Housing
Zone, with a landmark £11.23m investment into a publicly accessible courtyard
garden, alongside new community facilities. A Labour pledge met to continue
using public assets for public good – balancing regeneration projects in the
interests of the many in search of a new home, not the few that decry change.
The economic regeneration of Wembley is clear for all to see, from the world-
class Stadium to the re-developed public realm – thousands more Londoners
now also call the area home, and the area is attracting more inward investment
than ever before. This has been made possible thanks to long-term public and
private partnership, leveraging resources, expertise and crucially, investment.
Through the Wembley Housing Zone we have another opportunity to create
another powerhouse, driving positive change along Wembley High Road.
The housing crisis did not begin yesterday, and it will not finish tomorrow. It is
therefore vital that we create plans which respond to the economic drivers as
they are not as we wish them to be. We have a moral imperative to do all in our
power to build more housing and communities that last long into the future. The
regeneration that underpins the Wembley Housing Zone, is exactly that – an
effort to build a better Brent, a place where home ownership is a reality, not just
a dream. Supply of housing, of all tenures is vital to this, after all in the United
Kingdom we have some of the lowest ratios in Europe for housing stock to
people. Taken together with the toxic headwinds of inflation, prices are being
pushed everywhere and house prices are now at their most unaffordable,
relative to earnings since 1876.
Of course community centres are much needed and more community space essential and welcome in the increasingly dense Wembley High Road but could Brent Council have got a better deal from one of their favoured developers?
