Brent Cabinet to approve major housing acquisitions from developers in South Kilburn and Alperton on Monday

 Monday's meeting of the outgoing Brent Cabinet is set to approve housing acquisitions from developers totalling more than £40,000,000.

The first acquisition on the South Kilburn estate is 1-8 Neville House, 1-64 Winterleys, 113-128 Carlton House and Carlton Hall - collectively known as NWCC.

101 affordable housing units will be acquired from a preferred bidder selected as a development partner and will be subject to GLA funding of £100,000 per unit. A total of £10.1m.

The overall purchase price has been withheld under the Local Government Act:

By Virtue of Paragraph 3

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

The developer has been asked to review the housing mix of the development so as to provide a greater number of family units but the Appendix 1 referring to the mix is not available to the public. I have asked Brent Council in the public interest to make that available.

The Report before the Cabinet says that these will be secure tenancies let at South Kilburn Social Rent levels.

The Report states:

The purchase of the affordable units will be achieved under the terms of a  development, sale and purchase agreement with a developer partner. The recommendation to purchase is subject to the Preferred Bidder being selected as the developer partner. The council has proposed to the Preferred Bidder that subject to its selection, this agreement must be entered into by 30 September 2022. If it is not then the Preferred Bidder (assuming that they are the developer partner) can then sell the affordable units to another registered provider.

The development, sale and purchase agreement will also contain all the appropriate development obligation from the developer partner in relation to the affordable homes. The council will have the right, inter alia, to include its specification for the affordable homes, its nomination agreement, details of the handover protocols and the defects liability and snagging procedures in the development, sales and purchase agreement. The freehold development, sales and purchase agreement will also include the council’s specific delivery measures and set payment terms.

 

Detailed negotiations are delegated to the Strategic Director for Community Wellbeing and the Lead Member for Housing.  

The other acquisition is the second one to be made at the St Georges Development Ltd (developer and freeholder) Grand Union Phase 2 site in Alperton.

This is the purchase of 115  'affordable' rent flats on a 999 year lease at a price of £30.27m (including fees).  The rent would be capped at the Local Housing Allowance level.

The mix is:
 

The price per unit at £250,000 is below the £280k level of the New Council Homes Programme.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Alperton, Anton Georgiou, told Wembley Matters,

Whilst I welcome the news that the Council are seeking to increase their own housing stock, I’m concerned that this purchase is of too many 1 bed units and not enough large units - which is what we know Brent is desperately short of.

We have always been told that the Council has a surplus of 1 bedroom flats, so why are they buying more? 

The Council should be negotiating a better mix of units to help families in the most need. Until they do, we won’t even begin to make a dent in our huge housing waiting list.

Negotiations are delegated thus:

Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Regeneration & Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning, to negotiate and agree the terms and thereafter enter into a contract with the developer for the purchase of the scheme and make any necessary additional amendments required to the contract thereafter.

The exchange of contracts  is targeted for May 2022.

 See this Minute from the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny discussion of 'affordable' housing for information LINK

Development plans for South Kilburn's Neville House and Carlton House

Ariel view of the present site

The Plans

Brent Council has published (Reference 18/4920) its planning application for Neville House, Carlton House and several neighbouring buildings on the South Kilburn Estate LINK:

Demolition of all existing buildings and erection of a part six, seven, eight, nine, ten and twelve storey building arranged around a courtyard (Western Building) providing 148 units (23 x studios, 53 x 1bed, 50 x 2 bed and 22 x 3bed) including a concierge and residential communal room at ground floor and a part seven, eight, nine and ten storey L shaped building (Eastern Building) providing 116 residential units (60 x 1bed, 38 x 2bed, 16 x 3bed and 2 x 4bed).  Construction of a basement under the Western Building with a car lift and access from Albert Road.  The provision of a shared surface with the extension of Neville Road from Denmark Road to Albert Road, with associated car parking, cycle provision, bin stores, landscaping and ancillary works. | 1-8 INC Neville House & Neville House Garages, Neville Road, 1-64 INC Winterleys and Seahorse Day Nursery, Albert Road, 113-128 Carlton House and Carlton House Hall, Canterbury Terrace London, NW6

As can be seen from  the images above the proposed new development is much denser and with the highest block 10 storeys, much taller. The amount of green space is reduced.

There are only two comments so far on the Planning Portal. One is classified as neutral and is concerned about the amount of car parking that will be available for 264 units. The over makes a number of points:

I strongly object to the current planning applications on the grounds that we will lose, privacy, light and outlook, especially those flats in Swift House that are south facing, looking over Albert Road.

I am the one of these Swift House flats and when I purchased the flat, the Brent council plans to replace Winterley, Neville and Carlton houses were to build 6 storey buildings max, which now have duplicated. This has a negative impact on the neighbourhood as well as on my property.

The main appeal when we purchased our flat was its light, privacy and outlook, which will be heavily diminished with the current planning.

Additionally, I would like to raise concerns about losing existing green spaces, amenity spaces and trees in the areas. The garden land around Neville House and Winterleys House will be replaced with 8 to 12 storey buildings that will make the area packed witch concrete. Also, the huge number of new dwellings will make the zone highly dense and increase the traffic narrow roads in the area.

With this in mind, I would like to object to these plans and ask to reduce the height of the buildings proposed in this plan, to reduce the impact on light and privacy on the surrounding buildings, and to avoid converting an area that now is airy and green into a packed, overbuilt and overcrowded area.

On social housing the Planning Statement claims:

The proposed development provides a 47 % quantum of affordable housing (measured by habitable room), with 100% social rent provision. 


The affordable housing units will be located in the Eastern Building. The provision of 116 socially rented properties represents an uplift of 36 socially rented properties on site compared with the existing provision of 80 social rented properties.
 

The Carlton House site is identified as having an indicative capacity for 66 dwellings, of which 29 for market and 37 affordable; and the Neville / Winterleys site as having capacity for 137 units, of which 61 would be market housing and 76 affordable units.

The Brent Council Forward Plan 15 indicates that the Cabinet on March 11th will discuss a ballot on South Kilburn Estate but gives no further information. The London Mayor has adopted a policy requiring ballots of estate residents affected by regeneration and one is to be held on the St Raphaels proposals.  This followed pressure from within and outside the Labour Party, including that of Geen Assembly Member Sian Berry. Release of Mayoral funding at £100k for each affordable unit and £28k for shared equity is dependent on ballots being held.

Residents will be concerned about the loss of community facilities involved in the proposals. The Planning Statement comments:

The proposed development will result in the loss of Carlton Hall, a 173 m2 community centre and a small community use (106 m2) on the ground floor of Winterley’s House that is currently used by a small nursery. Carlton Hall was previously used by the South Kilburn Trust, however this organisation has now moved to the new Carlton and Granville Centre within the wider South Kilburn estate. Carlton Hall will temporarily be used as a Doctor’s surgery until the 
 neighbouring Peel site is redeveloped where a new Health Centre Hub is being provided for the GP surgery in the longer term. The proposed Western Building will incorporate a small communal space on the ground floor that will be for the building’s residents use. 

It is considered that there is sufficient community use provision in the vicinity of the site which includes Carlton and Granville Nursey, and Carlton Vale Infant School. Within and close to the wider South Kilburn estate there is a range of community facilities. This includes the St Augustine’s Sports Hall (with community access), The Tabot Centre After School Club, The Xhamia e Shqiptareve Community and Cultural Centre and The Vale Community Centre. There are also a range of local sports facilities nearby including Moberly Sports Centre.