Catford Dogs Homes get go ahead
The Mayor of London's office announces:
More than a thousand jobs and 500 new homes will be created in Lewisham through the redevelopment of the former Catford Greyhound Stadium, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced today.
The £117m redevelopment will bring 589 new homes to the 4.7 hectare site in the heart of Lewisham under a deal reached between the Mayor and developer Barratt London [the developers of "Renaissance Lewisham" and a client of BC's employers]. When finished, this will include 113 affordable rent properties which will be managed by Gallions Housing Association, 60 shared ownership properties and 416 properties for private ownership.
The publicly owned stadium has been released by the Mayor as part of his drive to unlock development on public sector owned land in order to increase housing supply for hard working Londoners and boost jobs and growth. It is amongst the first tranche of sites released by the Greater London Authority since it became one of the capital’s largest public land owners last year.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London’s unbeatable allure means unprecedented demand for housing, and making public land available for development has a big part to play in meeting this. The transformation of Catford Dogs, which for the last decade has been left empty and unused, will not only bring hundreds of new homes to the heart of London, but will feed into the wider regeneration of Catford Town Centre making it an even better place to live and injecting a healthy new dose of jobs and growth into one of the capital’s key opportunity areas.”
The former dog track sits between two key transport hubs, Catford Bridge and Catford railway station, and when complete will also boast 508 sq m of retail space, 298 sq m of community space as well as landscaped links through the site to Ladywell Fields and Catford Town Centre. Work is expected to begin by early 2014 and the project is expected to be complete by 2017.
Alastair Baird, Barratt London Regional Managing Director, added: “'We are delighted to be working with the Mayor on this exciting project. This is the fifth site we have secured in the capital in the last six months, bringing a total of 1,800 new homes to London. The site at Catford will add to our already significant presence in the Borough of Lewisham, with our redevelopment of the town centre – Renaissance – which will provide a total of 788 new homes together with a new leisure centre due to open shortly.”
The transformation of Catford Stadium, which has been unused for the last ten years and sits within one of London’s key opportunity areas and will provide a major catalyst for future regeneration potential in Catford Town Centre. Lewisham Council have outlined a number of redevelopment opportunities including the redevelopment of Catford Shopping Centre and plans to work with TfL to improve the transport network in the town centre.
Deputy Mayor of Lewisham and Cabinet Member for Regeneration Cllr Alan Smith says: “It is very good news for Catford that this site is finally to be developed. The additional homes and jobs will be very welcome in this part of Lewisham, and the development will sit well alongside our own plans for the rebuilding and improvement of Catford Town Centre.”
Barratt London is among the 25 developers announced last week to sit on the Mayor’s brand new land procurement group, the London Development Panel, which has been set up to accelerate the delivery of housing in London by making it faster, easier and cheaper for public land owners to bring forward land for development.
The former Catford Greyhound Stadium site was transferred to the GLA from the HCA as part of the devolution of power to the Mayor under the Localism Act 2011. The land was acquired by English Partnerships, a predecessor body of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), in March 2004 from Network Rail and the National Greyhound Association.
