Regeneration scheme to deliver ‘affordable’ homes

Work has started on the first of 4000 homes to be built under a pilot regeneration scheme designed to deliver 'affordable' housing to the Greater London area.


At least 1,500 of the 4,000 homes to be built over the next five years under the London-Wide Initiative scheme will be ‘affordable properties for key workers’ to rent and buy. The first 147 will go up at Adelaide Wharf in Shoreditch, North London, and are due to be completed in one year’s time.

The London-Wide Initiative aims to combine affordability with sustainability – the homes at Adelaide Wharf are expected to achieve an Eco-Homes Excellent rating, the Government’s way of measuring the energy and resource efficiency of a building. Sustainable materials are to be used in the construction of the homes.

Thirty per cent of the properties will be three and four bedroom houses, with a considerably lower environmental impact than single occupancy housing.

English Partnerships, the Government’s regeneration agency, is running the scheme in conjunction with developers First Base, Key London Alliance and a consortium led by Countryside Properties plc.

Yvette Cooper, MP, minister for housing and planning said: “We need to build more homes across the board for the next generation – more market housing, more social housing and more shared equity housing – to help first-time buyers and reduce overcrowding too.

“Adelaide Wharf is a great opportunity to fast track affordable housing in the city where more homes are needed.”

John Callcutt, CEO of English Partnerships, said, “Providing affordable homes for key workers in the capital is the primary aim of this project. I congratulate First Base on bringing forward not only a well designed scheme but one which will provide high quality new homes where key workers will want to live and will be able to afford to live.”

Elliot Lipton, managing director of First Base, called the scheme “an important milestone in the delivery of mixed tenure housing by the private sector” which “exemplifies the capability of public private partnerships.”

Goska Romanowicz

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe