Major Regeneration Projects at Old Oak Common

Tall towers planned for Old Oak Common as Asserson Planning drives London regeneration.

Challenge

Early in 2016 the Asserson planning team was called in to deliver two major applications in Old Oak Common/Park Royal. This is London’s largest regeneration area, described as “a new city within a city”. The schemes at North Kensington Gate, designed by acclaimed architects Allies & Morrison, comprise a combined 350 units, in buildings ranging from 5 to 22 storeys in height. There were extensive heritage and townscape issues linked to the location of the sites, which are adjacent to a Grade 1 listed park and cemetery. In addition, the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and the Greater London Authority had detailed requirements around affordable housing, section 106 and the community infrastructure levy.

Inspiration

The Asserson planning team assembled and managed a team of professional experts to prepare detailed planning applications for mixed use residential led development. We project managed and carried out a full audit of the suite of documents required to support the applications, including the environmental statement. We led the team to work through the plethora of land use issues with sensitivity and care, and we engaged in a constructive dialogue with the OPDC regarding their areas of interest to establish the most appropriate way to deliver the development alongside their social housing and community requirements.

Result

The schemes are amongst the first to come forward in the area, and in the first half of 2017 the OPDC committee resolved to grant consent for both applications.
Since then we have project managed a further scheme within Old Oak Common for a series of buildings between 8 and 19 storeys providing approximately 200 residential units for the private rented sector. We put together the full professional team including renowned architects MAKE, and are working with both the OPDC and the Greater London Authority. The OPDC granted consent for this application in July 2017.

The process of negotiating the complex section 106 agreements to secure all three consents is now underway. The negotiation will include affordable housing provision, including fresh products, and review mechanism clauses which are important areas of focus for developers at the moment. Working closely with the Development Corporation has also helped focus their own ‘direction of travel’ policy, which has directly benefited our clients and their development aims.