More than 3,000 new homes could be delivered at Charlton Riverside after the Royal Borough of Greenwich and housing association Hyde agreed to bring their land holdings together under a shared masterplan and planning strategy.
Council leader Anthony Okereke announced the agreement at the London Real Estate Forum, describing it as the council's second major intervention in Charlton Riverside and saying the partnership would place a strong emphasis on affordable housing.
Okereke said:
We're bringing land owned by the council & Hyde together to create a shared masterplan and planning strategy. Together, we aim to deliver more than 3,000 homes, with a strong focus on affordable housing.
Major landowners join forces
The new Landowners Collaboration Agreement brings together two of the largest landowners in the area and is intended to remove one of the biggest barriers to regeneration: fragmented ownership and piecemeal planning.
The partnership will focus on a key stretch of riverside land between Greenwich Peninsula and Woolwich, with the council and Hyde working on a combined masterplan and joint planning strategy.
Hyde confirmed on 18 September that the agreement is intended to unlock more than 3,000 homes at Charlton Riverside.
Part of an 8,000-home vision
Charlton Riverside is one of London's designated Opportunity Areas and has long been identified as a major regeneration site.
City Hall says the wider area has capacity for around 8,000 new homes, alongside thousands of jobs, new public transport links, walking and cycling improvements and a mix of employment and residential uses.
Greenwich Council's existing vision is for Charlton Riverside to become a mixed-use neighbourhood where people can live, work and access new community facilities, open spaces and better transport connections.
Affordable housing central to plans
Affordable housing is expected to be a major part of the new agreement.
Greenwich's existing planning framework for Charlton Riverside requires a significant proportion of affordable housing, with the council's masterplan setting out a 35% benchmark subject to viability and individual schemes.
Hyde already has consent for major development in the area, including its Herringham Quarter scheme, while a separate 182-home Hyde development at Eastmoor Street recently secured Gateway 2 approval and is planned as 100% affordable housing.
Okereke promises interventionist approach
Okereke said the agreement reflected a more active role for Greenwich Council in shaping regeneration.
He said the council wanted to act as a "convenor of place", bringing landowners and partners together rather than waiting for fragmented development to happen site by site.
His wider ambition is for Charlton Riverside to deliver not only homes, but local jobs, stronger neighbourhoods, public spaces and infrastructure that support health and community life.
One of London's biggest regeneration opportunities
Charlton Riverside covers around 121 hectares of former industrial land and remains one of the capital's largest undeveloped riverside areas.
The challenge now will be turning the new land agreement into planning applications, infrastructure investment and completed homes after years in which progress across parts of the Opportunity Area has been slower than anticipated.
The new Greenwich-Hyde agreement is intended to break that logjam by coordinating land, planning and delivery - with more than 3,000 homes forming the next major phase of a much wider transformation of Charlton Riverside.
