Havering and Wates rework £1.2bn Romford regen

Havering Council and Wates Residential have overhauled their £1.2bn 12-estate regeneration plans, with a change to the sites and housing mix. The joint venture has dropped plans for the £143m regeneration of the Delta Estate, to be replaced with a £152m investment in two new schemes. The council said previous plans for 430 homes to replace the 200 existing homes would not meet the aspirations of the council or residents. It will instead develop 519 homes on two new sites, with 313 homes at the Blue Line site and a further 206 on Chippenham Road. Further changes will see an uplift of 606 homes, up 19.3% on previous plans, bringing the new total to 3,718 homes. Havering Council selected Wates Residential as partner for the council estate regenerations in 2018. The project sought to replace 852 homes with 3,112 new properties, of which 1,186 would be affordable. In the wake of the pandemic and challenges in the private-sale market, the partners have also scaled back the open-market product in favour of a greater number of social rented homes for the borough. The new business plan now includes 1,695 affordable homes, an uplift of 42.9% on the previous plans. There will be 1,310 affordable rented homes and 385 shared ownership. The first phase of 12-estate regeneration has already begun at Napier House and New Plymouth House in 2020, with Solar, Serena and Sunrise Court set to begin soon and Waterloo Estate in early 2022. Havering has agreed a £58.3m investment for social housing in phase one. The council’s equity will replace external borrowing and will be matched by Wates. Some £45.4m in forward funding will support delivery of 53 social-rented homes, which will see the number of private-sale homes drop from 1,085 to 934. The council has also agreed to purchase all 197 homes at the Napier House and New Plymouth House scheme as affordable. It had originally planned to acquire 126 homes, but has added 71 as affordable, owing to uncertainty in the housing market during the pandemic. Design changes to the Solar, Serena, Sunrise schemes include a larger provision of communal space. Council documents explain that the scheme has been scaled back significantly due to the rate of sale of open-market product. The council also intends to acquire unsold homes at a discount to the open-market value. The partners have also opted to increase the number of affordable homes at the Waterloo Estate to replace open-market-sale homes. The uplift in housing, combined with rising values and build costs has seen the project value rise from £800m in the original estimate to £1.177bn. The council is contributing £354m with £823m from Wates. The partners updated the joint venture business plan last month to reflect the new arrangement. Neil Stubbings, director of regeneration for Havering Council, said: “Our joint venture partnership with Wates Residential has been set up to deliver Havering Council’s plans for our estate regeneration programme. It is a 50:50 partnership, within which the risk and reward is equally shared. “As you would expect with any project of this size, plans will evolve to deliver the best outcome for the council and our residents.” To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette