Waltham Forest - Our Community

Saturday, 25 June 2022

Town Centre - work to commence soon

WALTHAMSTOW TOWN CENTRE TOWER BLOCKS

SUMMARY
As can be seen from the diagram above a significant amount of the current open space will soon be hoarded up. This is to allow a large hole to be dug down to the current Walthamstow Station platfoms to enable the new station entrance to be built. The land is also needed to enable the foundations of the 2 tower blocks to be created. This work is expected to start anytime from July 2022 onwards.

Originally C&R (owners of the Mall and 6 other shopping centres) looked for a partner and thought they had found one when they submitted the first planning application. They withdrew before the 2017 Planning Committee meeting which meant C&R had to find a new partner. Mount Anvil came along and agreed to support them but they left in November 2018 so again C&R were unable to progress the scheme. They were then taken over by Growthpoint, a South African company, and it looked as if the scheme could progress.

A new scheme was submitted (basically the same as the first but saving the avenue of trees). In January 2021 they were granted planning permission for the revised scheme and recently they have partnered with Long Harbour. At the end of June 2022 Long Harbour will be paying £20m to C&R and will take over the site for the two tower blocks. Work is then expected to commence on building the foundations for the tower blocks.

At the planning committee meeting C&R made it clear TfL would have to have finished constructing the hole down to the tube lines by 2025 inorder that the project could continue. Unfortunately, due to the Covid Pandemic, TfL's finances have collapsed and they can't afford to fund the new station. The council has stepped in to provide the funding for the hole.

C&R ANNUAL REPORT 2022

I would like to thank our major shareholder, Growthpoint, for its unwavering support of our business over the past two years, as well as the dedicated, talented team in our support office and, in particular, our front-line centre-based teams who have performed exceptionally.

Walthamstow residential opportunity - We are now in the final stages of clearing the remaining pre-conditions on the Walthamstow residential opportunity to facilitate the land receipt of c. £20 million payable by our residential partner, Long Harbour. At the end of 2021 planning consent was confirmed following the expiry of the statutory Judicial Review period. The consent enables phased development of 495 high rise Build to Rent residential apartments, to be developed by Long Harbour; 43 low-rise private sale residential apartments; 47,000 sq ft of commercial floor space and a new station entrance to the Victoria Line underground station. Since the year end we have concluded terms that deliver vacant possession on all units required to unlock the development site and have commenced enabling works to relocate affected utilities and infrastructure. We have also agreed the principal form of the development agreement and headlease documentation with the local authority. We anticipate achieving full unconditionality with Long Harbour in the coming weeks, which will trigger the release of the capital payment to us and an anticipated start on site for the high rise residential construction by mid-year 2022.

LONG HARBOUR

LONG HARBOUR WEB SITE

LONG HARBOUR WHITE PAPER

Nick Tiratsoo's analysis of Long Harbour.

WALTHAM FOREST MATTERS

So who are Long Harbour? Here are some snippets from their web site:

BtR (Build to Rent)

MMC (Modern Methods of Construction)

Long Harbour is an established UK real-estate investment manager with a focus on BtR investments. Long Harbour owns and operates several BtR developments through our in-house resident management company, Way of Life. Since 2013, Long Harbour have invested in over 3,500 apartments and houses in the UK, representing over £850m of BtR assets.

Long Harbour itself has a demonstrable track record in working with developers, local authorities and contractors to deliver BtR homes across the country and invest in local communities. This includes the delivery of 476 apartments in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the delivery of 166 units in Stratford, as well as the commitment to deliver 481 new homes in Tottenham Hale, which is currently under construction and being delivered over two phases.

Levelling up continues to be a priority for the Government, with the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022. With a large focus on planning issues, we continue to believe that house building and BtR are central to the UK’s economy recovery and the government succeeding with this agenda.

BtR developments can contain a range of rental levels, including affordable housing, depending on market conditions and the operating model of the developer. This has been a key point of the Mayor of London’s London Plan, which has recently been approved by government. This specifies that BtR schemes must deliver at least 35% affordable housing, or 50% when the development is on public sector land or industrial land that has been approved for residential use.1 This model is one which should be considered across the country to improve variety of housing stock.

Modern Methods of Construction’ (MMC) is a term which encompasses a range of offsite manufacturing and onsite techniques that provide alternatives to traditional house building.

Modular construction is the process where buildings are made up of individual sections or pods constructed in an off-site controlled manufacturing facility, then assembled at the final building site to support the rapid and efficient construction of a permanent structure.

Modular homes are quicker to construct in comparison to traditional homes. They are often constructed off site and then assembled on site – meaning construction is not impeded by external factors – like weather disruption – and there is a more efficient use of materials.

Benefits of MMC:

3 1. Quicker and more predictable delivery – a possible 20–60% reduction in the construction programme time. By virtue of its investment model, BtR is best placed to support this speedy delivery at scale.

2. Better quality of delivery – MMC tends to be more accurate, with less likelihood of defects upon completion and delivers a longer life cycle with less maintenance.

3. Overall reduction in energy consumption – homes built by MMC can use 20-30% less energy in comparison to traditionally built homes. This is due to building efficiencies, such as improved airtightness, being a fundamental benefit of MMC.

4. Fewer deliveries to site – this results in less air pollution, noise and disruption to the local area during construction.

5. Creation of local employment – factories provide stable employment and can be situated in areas with higher levels of unemployment to generate employment opportunities.

6. Supporting building information modelling: given the innovative nature of MMC, it helps foster greater investment in the digital technology that is necessary to support greater housing delivery.

7. Delivering different construction jobs: MMC helps to attract a different type of worker to the construction industry, helping to secure its long-term future as an attractive employment option.

Watch this space as the project moves into the construction phases.

Town Centre Factsheets 1 to 6

Wednesday, 6 April 2022

Town Centre Protest

Come along this Saturday 9th April 2022 from 1pm to protest about the lack of communication about the Town Centre development. Neither the council, Longe Harbour (the tower block developers) and Capital & Regional have been prepared to go public on what is going on.

Shops at this end of the Mall have closed as the left hand corner will be demolished to make way for the 32 and 26 storey tower blocks in Selborne Road. The open space in this corner will be closed up to the avenue of lime trees. It is expected this first phase will take 3 years to construct. So you can expect to be shopping in a building site for many years to come.

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Town Centre Update 31-3-22

The Town Centre as conceived in 1983.

Now the owners, Capital and Regional , want to bring it into the 21st century by expanding the shopping space as more people shop online, build two residential tower blocks 34 and 26 storeys, over twice the height of any other block in the Borough. To make space for this they have closed the Heart Charity shop and Costa Coffee and will be building over 32% of the open space, leaving less than 50% of the existing green space for informal leisure, despite needing more open space for the people who will live in the 538 new flats.

Unlike the majority of the large developers in the Borough C&R have made no effort to keep in touch with residents. At Christmas we managed to get them to admit they would be starting work early this year. So far no information has come from them and now they have closed the chairty shop and Costa Coffee. When will they let us know the timeline for turning the Town Centre into a building site for well over 5 years?

In addition the Grenfell Inquiry has not completed it's work so what evidence is there that these flats will be safe, especially as they will be constructed off site and bolted together on site?

Come and make your protest on Saturday 9th April at 1pm

in the Town Square.

Heart Charity Shop closed

Costa Coffee closed

Friday, 25 March 2022

Winsbeach of the future?

Radbourne Crescent

Many of you know that the Forest Road end of Fyfield Road is named Winsbeach. The local WF Echo has discovered plans to increase the size of the Radbourne Estate by building on top of the existing buildings. This has to be resisted as it will overcrowd this residential area.

1. Hylands, an adjacent council estate, has been demolished and rebuilt with modern flats. Building on top of existing council flats is messy and creates a poor environment for the residents while the work is underway.

2. To save money by turning people's homes into a building site is not accpetable. The noise, dust, construction traffic over years creates an unhealthy environment.

3. We cannot keep filling London up with homes as it will be unliveable in with severe congestion and a complete lack of facilites such as health services, electricity, water, transport etc. We need to encourage people to move north to the brownfield redundant industrial areas.

4. The London Plan is not fit for purpose as it is designed to increase the density of homes in London which doesn't have the space for more people.

5. This site is not mentioned in the Waltham Forest's Local Plan so is not part of the future vision of the Borough's planners. It is just about getting money in to line developer's pockets.

6. Upper Walthamstow is a new Ward and with the elections coming up we must lobby the candidates to reject this scheme which will overcrowd this residential neighbourhood.

7. Developments already underway in the Upper Walthamstow and Wood Street Ward areas are:

Hylands 120 flats

Homebase 583 flats

Family and Homes Hub (Old Wood Street Library site) 90 flats

Marlowe Road 436 with an additional 144 if planning permission is granted.

Picture House (Wood Street) 33

Fyfield Road 9

Willow House and Sterling House (adjacent to Homebase site) 112

Thorpe Coombe House (Forest Road) site 100

Vallentin Road (old garage site) 17

In addition 433 flats are being built around the Town Hall and next to the college plus the small development at the top of Spruce Hills. And what is planned for the old Texaco site that has been boarded up for years - so much for the refurbishment that was due before Covid?

Within a year or so a total of 1,644 more flats will be completed in the 2 Wards meaning an additional population of over 3,000 whith no extra infrastructure to support them.