Regenerating Lewisham shopping centre

This application is automatically referable to the Mayor London due to its size.

Typical referrals for Mayor of London are applications that propose:

• buildings higher than 30m
• more than 150 homes
• more than 15,000 sqm floorspace

The Council referred the application to the Mayor for initial comments known as Stage 1 on 5 November 2024 and comments were received on 20 January 2025.

Once the Councils Planning Committee has made a decision, the application must be referred back to the Mayor, known as Stage 2. The Mayor will then have the opportunity make further comments and either allow the Council to continue its decision or decide if the application shall be ‘called-in’ where the Mayor of London takes the application and makes a formal decision. This is known as Stage 3 and a final could be different from the Councils.

The vast majority of applications are considered at Stage 2, with very few called in for Stage 3.

The planning application outlines the minimum amount of affordable housing the developer is obliged to deliver. The application has been subject to a full and independent financial viability review by the Councils independent expert consultants and the Mayor of London’s viability team. If the economic outlook changes for the scheme, then the council has built in review points and mechanisms to ensure Lewisham receives its fair share of any windfall.

The redevelopment is highly complex, including the partial retention of the existing shopping centre and therefore complex demolition and construction costs where the re-development is delivered in phases that do not result in the closure of the entire shopping centre.

The project delivers significant enhancement to the town centre including a new public park, community building and live music venue and a £5m town centre fund that will go toward improving surrounding public spaces and road crossings.

20% affordable conventional housing is proposed. This includes 103 social rent homes and 241 ‘intermediate’ homes.

The intermediate homes are split between a mix of studio housing with a 20% discount on market rent and homes with 2-3 bedrooms will be let at London Living Rent which is an affordable housing product where rents are based on one third of household incomes and are suitable for key workers, where eligible.

(note there is a London-wide adopted eligibility criteria for London living rent)

20% affordable conventional housing is proposed. This includes 103 social rent homes and 241 ‘intermediate’ homes.

The intermediate homes are split between a mix of studio housing with a 20% discount on market rent and homes with 2-3 bedrooms will be let at London Living Rent which is an affordable housing product where rents are based on one third of household incomes and are suitable for key workers, where eligible.

(note there is a London-wide adopted eligibility criteria for London living rent)

A family sized 3 bedroom home at London Living Rent for Lewisham Central will cost the renter £1,390.

The applicant has stated that the scheme once completed could provide between 1590 and 2600 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs. This is a projected net increase of between 900 and 1910 full time jobs compared to the existing shopping centre.

The reason for the wide range in jobs depends on the final uses, where certain retail or other leisure or commercial uses have higher employment figures.

The application proposes a brand new 500-person culture and live music venue and re-use of the Model Market for new incubator spaces for Lewisham food and beverage uses.

During construction there could be up to 770 full time jobs per month over the projected 10-year construction phase.

The application proposes up to 661 student units (beds). The application also proposes up to 1719 homes, and 445 beds in co-living homes. Higher Education is both a social good and a key part of London’s economy. Currently there is strategic need for new student housing across London and even locally in Lewisham local HE providers share they are hampered by the lack of bed spaces available to them.

The applicant has indicated that the new shopping centre will contain a range of spaces including key anchor retail and leisure tenants and other spaces that would be suitable for Lewisham business and other independent businesses.

The application proposes a range of housing that meets the needs of a wide range of people. This includes conventional housing, co-living homes and student housing which include discounted rents and London Living Rents. A lot of young people aren’t in the position to be able to afford to buy a home, the build to rent market is important, particular in a borough like Lewisham, which has a high proportion of young professionals.

The application is considered acceptable in terms of public transport impact subject to financial contributions including £500,000 towards Lewisham station enhancements (which will be added to the other financial contributions secured from other developments nearby) and the £5m town centre fund which the Council and a new steering group can direct contributions across the town centre.

The Planning Service, with their independent consultants BNPP and the GLA entered into extensive and detailed negotiations with Landsec around build costs, ‘exceptional costs’

such as demolition which is noted as being complicated on this site. Further discussions around appropriate profit levels, sales values, rental values, finance values, marketing costs and long-term growth projections.

If permission is granted, the S106 legal agreement will contain multiple viability review mechanisms per phase. This will allow the Council to re-assess the schemes viability as construction progresses and whether increased affordable housing can be provided.

Infrastructure is necessary to make the scheme acceptable in overall planning terms and will be secured in the planning permission, this includes the £5m town centre fund.