London Borough of Greenwich application case study

Greenwich Peninsula     

The Greenwich Peninsula is one of the largest mix-used developments in Europe covering over 300 acres. 

It was once the site of Europe's largest gas works. When the works closed in the mid 1980's it was a derelict and contaminated site with a negative value. Greenwich Council, working with partners helped transform it into a thriving area with an exciting future.

By 2021 the site will house around 25,000 people in over 10,000 new mixed tenure homes; will be home to a thriving commercial district employing over 20,000 people and home to one of the largest European leisure and entertainment destinations attracting over five million visitors per year. This represents an investment of around £5 billion.

Regeneration is one of the council's main objectives as reflected in the Corporate Plan and the Greenwich Strategy. The Greenwich Peninsula is a high priority and high profile element in this strategy.

The council's vision and leadership

Greenwich Council appreciated the difficulty of regenerating a large site that had high levels of contamination and lacking in basic infrastructure. The council's vision of a major leisure led mixed-use development began in the early 1990's and was based on Greenwich's unique position as the "home" of time.

The idea, led by the council, but taken forward through the Greenwich Waterfront Development Partnership, was to use the forthcoming Millennium celebrations as the catalyst for comprehensive and long-term regeneration. 

The vision of mixed-use development was developed locally by building a large group of supporting partners including British Gas, the National Maritime Museum, the University of Greenwich and the local business and community fora. This vision was eventually shared nationally after much lobbying from Greenwich and was adopted by the Government and the Millennium Commission as the National Millennium Festival.

The site was put forward by Greenwich as the location for the nation's millennium celebrations in 1996. This successful bid led to the development of the Millennium Dome and the New Millennium Experience in 2000, as well as the award winning Greenwich Millennium Village (GMV).

The success in promoting this vision led to English Partnerships involvement to bring about substantial remediation and infrastructure works to enable the site to be developed. This was the catalyst for the future development of the site post millennium.

Greenwich Millennium Village (GMV)

The first residential and mixed use development in the area was undertaken by GMV, a consortium comprising Countryside properties and Taylor Woodrow Developments limited working in partnership with English Partnerships and Moat Housing Group.

This development provides over 3000 homes as part of a new mixed tenure community with commercial space and social, community facilities and a new eco park.

GMV has set new standards for environmentally sustainable development and has won awards for design, energy efficiency and innovation and sustainable development including the 2008 Housing Design Awards for Best Project.

In terms of community development there are a number of community based organisations in GMV that were initially funded by developer subsidies and charged with the management and maintenance of social and economic issues.

GMVA is a residents association open to all residents.

GMV online is an online community website providing online community and management information, community newsletters and a notice board.

Moat Housing Group provides community development support to the whole community.

Greenwich Millennium Village Management Limited was set up to be responsible for the long-term management of the village. This company will ultimately be owned by the residents/owners and will determine the standards they require.

Affordable Housing is fully integrated into the development in a tenure blind way.

Greenwich Peninsula Partnership

The Council and the Government set up the Greenwich Peninsula Partnership (GPP) in 2001 to take forward the long term regeneration of the site. The GPP includes English Partnerships (now Homes and Communities Agency HCA), central and regional government as well as local business and community interests.

In 2001, Meridian Delta Ltd (MDL), a joint venture of Lendlease and Quintain were appointed as developers for the site.  The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) were chosen to develop the Millennium Dome as a leisure and entertainment destination including a multi-purpose Arena, exhibition area, and bars and restaurants

The GPP has developed to include the landowners and developers and works with local communities through its consultative forum.

During the past two years, milestones include:

• the opening of Peninsula Square, a large area of public space between the Dome and North Greenwich Station.  It is the size of Leicester Square and is a high quality space for local events.
• the opening of The 02, formally the Millennium Dome in June 2007 consisting of a 23,000 capacity multi-use arena, an 11 screen cinema, a 2,200 capacity music club, an exhibition space and over twenty bars, cafes and restaurants.
• planning consent for the relocation of Ravensbourne College to a site next to the 02 on Peninsula Square. This will bring 2000 students to the site in 2010 as well as business start-ups and research in the area of media and broadcast.
• planning consent for the four residential schemes totalling 900 homes. The first began in 2008 with completion by 2010. These schemes are striving to meet sustainable homes code 4 prior to the target date
• planning consent for a new secondary school.
• planning consent for a large office building to be completed by 2010 providing over 2,600 jobs.
• the development of an art strategy for the Peninsula.

The 02

The 02 opened its doors in June 2007 and has been an unprecedented success. Prior to the opening, the council had been working with AEG to maximise the benefits of the new development for local people. 

Working through the council-established Greenwich Local Labour and Business (GLLaB) organisation a pre-employment training packing was established with AEG to ensure local people were equipped with the skills necessary to gain a job at The 02. Over 60 per cent of those undertaking training were able to access a job. On opening 46 per cent of the jobs in The 02 were taken by Greenwich residents.

Continuing through the credit crunch

Over the past five years Greenwich has significantly exceeded it's previous London Plan Target of 800 dwellings per year. The London Plan Target to 2016/17 is 20,100 homes. Capacity has been identified for 22,635 and 90 per cent of this capacity has planning permission.

While the authority anticipates a slowdown over 09/10, they expect that schemes will then be back on track to meet the target. In the meantime individual developments are being monitored on a quarterly basis and discussions held with developers on a scheme by scheme basis, looking at flexibilities and maintaining an ongoing discussion with the HCA.

This includes changing the tenure mix within phases of larger schemes, for example a shift to 65 per cent affordable on the Armouries (Building 10) at Royal Arsenal. Greenwich is also supporting RSLs to secure increased grant rate e.g. up from c40 per cent to c60 per cent where cross-subsidy from sales is now unachievable, and is encouraging a shift by RSLs and private developers to develop "Rent to Buy" products to switch market and Low Cost Home Ownership sales to intermediate rented options.

This is ensuring that the majority of the schemes in the borough are continuing to move forward.