Boris backed over affordable housing levels on Royal Mail redevelopment

A judge today rejected claims from two London councils that mayor Boris Johnson failed to secure enough affordable housing when he approved the major redevelopment of a Royal Mail site that straddles their boundary. Ouseley J refused the London boroughs of Islington and Camden permission to seek judicial review of the mayor’s decision to grant the Royal Mail Group permission to redevelop its Mount Pleasant Mail Centre on either side of Phoenix Place, which marks the boundary between the two authorities. His decision clears the way for the mixed-use redevelopment, which will include 681 residential units – of which less than a quarter will be affordable housing – as well as 45,000 sq ft of office space and 24,000 sq ft of retail and community spaces. The councils had sought to argue that, in granting permission in March, the Johnson fell well short of applying the London Plan policy of seeking the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing. They claimed that the true value of the site is far higher than the £67m figure relied on in accepting a 23.9% level of affordable housing, which will result in a substantial profit for the Royal Mail Group. However, refusing permission for the claim to proceed, Ouseley J ruled that the authorities’ grounds of challenge were not arguable. He said that the mayor had exercised his planning judgment in respect of the issue whether the maximum reasonable affordable housing provision had been achieved, a matter on which different parties could reasonably disagree. He said: “Unarguably, the relevant questions were asked and reasonably answered.” Tim Mould QC had argued that a competitive return on the development could still have been achieved with a substantially greater quantity of affordable housing and that the Mayor failed to achieve the “undoubted imperative” of the policy, in an area of London where the community’s need for affordable housing is “urgent and widespread”. R on the application of London Borough of Islington and anr v The Mayor of London Planning Court (Ouseley J) 28 July 2015