British Land, the developer of the Canada Water masterplan, has been given a £100 million infrastructure loan from the government.
The point of the loan, which comes from government agency Homes England, is to speed up the Canada Water development, which could see up to 3,000 new homes built on the Rotherhithe peninsula over the next fifteen years.
British Land won planning permission for the development last year in the face of some local opposition. A legal campaign by Rotherhithe residents to block the masterplan for environmental reasons failed at the end of 2020. Others raised concerns about the impact of the scheme on Canada Water tube station, which was regularly very crowded before the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Thirty-five percent of the new homes will be “affordable”, in line with London housing policy. The £3.3bn scheme will also include a new “town centre” and investment in local public transport, and up to 20,000 new jobs.
Homes England interim boss Gordon More said the masterplan was an “incredibly important” step to boost the economy after Covid-19.
“We’re determined to use our resources to galvanise projects across the country and play our part in the country’s economic recovery,” he added.
The announcement came on the same day as British Land posted its second billion-pound annual loss in a row. The developer cited the impact of Covid-19 on its retail property empire. But this year’s £1.08bn loss was slightly lower than the £1.1bn deficit it reported in 2020, before the Covid crisis hit.
Rotherhithe people must be livid this unsustainable plan is now paid for by them, the taxpayer, so to keep the lights on at British Land.
Makes me wonder who does the British Land book keeping accounts or is it a loophole Government fund gain as they were generous and quick enough British Land with it seemed a bottomless pit of cash dishing out money to those they call influencers now on the Masterplan Route they have needed years to help push this fiasco through all of course Labour Party affiliated not the Labour Working Class we grew up knowing in the days of the Docks of course. The above comment is right though we foot the bill for the quantity Housing rush opposed to the quality!