Mayor of London consults on Homebase planning application

As part of the ‘call-in’ by City Hall on the Planning decision for the redevelopment of the Homebase site in Richmond, the Mayor of London is carrying out a consultation on a revised proposal. 

On 3 July, the Planning Committee for Richmond Council considered an application for a mixed-use development, creating 385 homes in a four-nine storey redevelopment on the Manor Road site. Following consideration of all the representations and the officer’s report, the Committee recommended the application be turned down on several grounds.

These included:

• failure to deliver maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing
• the design and scale being visually intrusive, dominant and overwhelming
• the quality of the proposed accommodation
• the impact on surrounding properties

Planning regulation dictates that developments of 150 residential units or more, or over 30 metres in height, must be referred to the Mayor of London, after the Council has made a decision.

Following the outcome of Richmond Council’s resolution to refuse planning permission for the scheme, the Mayor of London decided to use his powers to direct that he will become the local planning authority for the application. 

The Mayor believes that this development is of a nature or scale that would have a significant impact on the implementation of the London Plan policies on housing and affordable housing.

After the Mayor’s Direction, the Applicant submitted revisions to the GLA in November 2019, which were subject to consultation in December 2019 and January 2020.

In July 2020, the applicant made further amendments proposing the demolition of existing buildings and structures and comprehensive phased residential-led redevelopment of 4 to 11 storeys, to provide 453 residential units (of which 173 units will be affordable homes), flexible retail, community and office uses, provision of car and cycle parking, landscaping, public and private open spaces and all other necessary enabling works (see the below for the full summary).

Residents can now have their say in a consultation by the GLA on the revised application until 3 September 2020.

Where can the documents be viewed?

The application documents are available to view on the GLA website.

How to comment

You can make representations by emailing the Greater London Authority at ManorRoad@london.gov.uk by 3 September 2020. Remember to include the GLA reference: 4795.

(Hard copies of documents are not available to view, and representations by letter are discouraged, in line with Town and Country Planning (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020).

Comments received after 3 September 2020, but before a decision is made, may still be considered but failure to meet this deadline could result in your comments not being considered. Any representations that have been previously made on this application to Richmond Council or Greater London Authority will still be taken into account.

When will a decision be made?

The Mayor has provisionally scheduled a virtual representation hearing for the 1 October at 13:30. However, this is provisional only and not yet formally confirmed. Anyone who has written to either Richmond or the Mayor will be notified directly at least 14 days in advance of the hearing.  

Useful links:

GLA Homebase webpage

GLA Homebase application documents webpage

London Borough of Richmond application webpage (use reference 19/0510/FUL)

Revised proposal summary:

• Increase of residential units from 385 as originally submitted to 453 through increase in heights to some buildings and optimisation of layouts
• Increase in height of building A (core A) by 1 storey, increase in building B by 2 storeys, increase in building C (core A) by 3 storeys and increase in building C (Cores B and C) by 1 storey.
• Decrease in height of building A (core D) and D (core B) by 1 storey
• Reduction in floor to floor heights from 3.3m to 3.15m
• Removal of Building E which was part of the revisions made on 22 November 2019
• Increased provision of affordable housing from 35% (134 units) to 40% (173 units) (with grant funding) by habitable room and amendments to tenure split from 30/70% affordable rent / intermediate to 52/48%
• Reduction of basement and relocation of cycle parking and bin storage to ground floor of each Block
• Increase in cycle parking to meet draft London Plan standards
• Design amendments to maximise residential quality including additional cores, dual aspect units along Manor Road, less north facing units, increased overlooking distances and improvements to residential amenity spaces
• Rearrangement of commercial floorspace including extending Block D commercial frontage towards North Sheen Station and removal of retail pavilion in central courtyard
• Alteration to building elevations and detailed design
• Public realm amendments including redesign of the central courtyard; revisions to the play space strategy; introduction of a half ball-court; and reconfiguration of car parking
• Amendments to the site-wide Energy Strategy to comply with the London Plan Energy Hierarchy

Notes for editors

If you are a journalist and would like further information about this press release, contact Elinor Firth on 020 8487 5159.

Reference: P310/20