Indefinite delays to the Bakerloo Line extension haven’t fazed a London developer that wants to build two new tower blocks near the Old Kent Road.
Pocket Living has applied to Southwark Council to build up to 117 homes in a tower block that will reach a maximum of eleven floors on Ossory Road in north Peckham and 22 flats in a nine-storey building in Bermondsey’s Verney Road.
Southwark Council wants 20,000 homes to be built along and around the area of the Old Kent Road, but half of these depend on the extension of the Bakerloo Line, according to the council’s action plan.
Transport for London (TfL) aimed to build two new stations along the road by 2031 to ease public transport pressures. But these plans have been shelved indefinitely because of TfL’s coronavirus-hit finances.
Bakerloo Line extension: ‘Not in my lifetime’ says TfL member
Thomasin Renshaw, development director at Pocket, told the News that the company’s unusual business model made public transport less of a concern. Pocket’s buyers have to either live or work in the borough that they buy in. The developer, which got £25m in investment from London Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2017, styles itself as a company that makes home owning in London a reality, selling flats at 20 per cent below market rate to first-time buyers with an income below £90,000.
But the Ossory Road site will have 78 homes at the normal market rate and 39 at Pocket’s 20 per cent discount rate, as well as space for light industry on the ground floor. All 22 homes in Verney Road will be for social rent and will be sold to the council or a housing association.
The developer, which has already built a nearby block in Varcoe Road, says in its application that the Ossory Road and Verney Road sites are linked and together make 50 per cent flats either for social rent or discounted sale.
Pocket tackles the issue of people buying a flat at a low price and renting it out by checking in on residents once a year. Residents can also sign up to an app that cultivates a “community atmosphere”, Ms Renshaw added.
She said that on the few occasions when someone has been flouting Pocket’s no-subletting rule, other residents had reported the issue first – but she dismissed the idea that its residents were surveilling each other.
Residents in nearby buildings have raised concerns that the Ossory Road block could affect the nearby Glengall Road conservation area, while some people living near the Verney Road development are worried about the effect on their light. Ms Renshaw replied that local people have had the opportunity to comment on Pocket’s consultation and the council’s development plan for the area – and are now able to give their opinion on the applications themselves.
To comment on the Ossory Road application search for 21/AP/3246 on Southwark Council’s planning website.
To comment on the Verney Road application search for 21/AP/3247 on the website.