London is now a no-go zone for developers, warns capital’s biggest housebuilder after shopping centre plan rejected
Developers “can no longer invest in new London sites”, the capital’s biggest housebuilder has claimed after its plan to bulldoze an old shopping centre for almost 900 homes was rejected. Berkeley Group‘s bid to knockdown the Aylesham Centre in Peckham was dismissed by the planning inspector this week. The scheme would have seen 867 new flats, 77 of which would be affordable. While the planning inspector said the development would bring “social and economic benefits” and ease Southwark’s “acute” housing shortage, it ruled this would “not outweigh the harm to the relevant designated heritage assets important to the area”. Rob Perrins, Executive Chair at Berkeley Group, said: “This decision demonstrates the extreme uncertainty developers continue to experience within the planning system.” The proposed development at the Aylesham Centre in Peckham (Berkeley Homes) He added: “How can we be allowed to build next to world heritage assets like Tower Bridge, but not here? “If we’re no longer permitted to meet housing needs on brownfield land then where should we build? It would take hundreds of acres …
