Delivery woman: Meet LLDC chief executive Lyn Garner

From her office window, Lyn Garner, chief executive at the London Legacy Development Corporation, looks out over the northern region of Stratford’s Olympic Park. In front of her are 1,500 build-to-rent homes at Get Living’s East Village, with a further 3,500 to come. Further north is the largely family housing-led, 859-home scheme at Chobham Manor, being delivered by Taylor Wimpey and L&Q. The development pipeline descends south where enabling works are under way for a £325m, 600-home residential development at Stratford Waterfront, where the LLDC will launch a search for a development partner in September. It wants to deliver the project as a 50:50 joint venture, backed with a package of £133m GLA grant funding for the park, and is seeking a private sector partner to bring it forward, with a goal to start on site next year. The LLDC’s outline plans for the 2.38-acre site show four buildings with up to 27 storeys. The homes delivered will be for sale and will include 35% affordable housing. The town centre scheme will form part of the £1.1bn cultural hub at East Bank, neighbouring the Sadler’s Wells theatre, the V&A, the new London College of Fashion campus and the BBC. “Stratford Waterfront will be different,” says Garner. “It will be mostly private and more high-end because the land is so expensive and it will be right next to the cultural buildings.” Development on the site, which housed the water polo arena during the 2012 Olympics, has been delayed by a year following controversy over the height of towers. Architect Allies and Morrison had initially planned two towers of 30 and 40 storeys, seeking to reduce the footprint to help finance the scheme. However, the towers fell in the line of the historic viewing corridor from Richmond Park to St Paul’s and the masterplan was revised. But now, with finance from the GLA, the LLDC has revised its approach, opting to bring the scheme forward as a joint venture. The earlier schemes at Chobham Manor and later, East Wick & Sweetwater, are being delivered through development agreements with deferred capital receipts. When these schemes launched, the LLDC did not have the finance or risk appetite but now, armed with mayoral funds, it is able to bring the stalled development forwards and share in the profits of the high-value homes sales. “This is the right thing for the public sector, not to simply sell all of its land through development agreements,” says Garner. “It gives the public sector a seat at the table, which is important when you have viability issues. “We can have a completely transparent conversation with a partner, as opposed to signing a development agreement and stepping back from it.” While this type of JV will be the first for the LLDC, it is not Garner’s first experience with the model. For more than six years she was the strategic director for regeneration, planning and development at Haringey Council and was the driving force behind the Haringey Development Vehicle. The HDV collapsed just months after her departure. The JV with Lendlease was scrapped in July 2018 following a change in the council leadership. “It was a nightmare,” says Garner. “The HDV was a victim of the political changes in London. It was overtaken by campaigns related to estate regeneration that gained a life of their own.” However, Garner is hopeful the same fate will not play out at Stratford Waterfront. “The beauty of the LLDC is that everybody who works in this organisation is focused on regeneration, development and planning for the area. That helps you get things done quicker,” she says. Today, Garner says she has to deal with fewer politicians, which can only be a good thing when it comes to planning and delivery. “There’s only Sadiq [Khan, mayor of London] really, because he’s my boss,” she quips. That said, Khan’s priorities have created some new hurdles for the LLDC, including the provision of affordable housing. Last year, he upped the affordable housing requirement on public land to 50%, which at Stratford means around 1,500 homes across Stratford Waterfront, Pudding Mill Lane and Rick Roberts Way. But Garner seems excited and ready for the challenge. “When you work in a job like mine, where you work with politicians, you’re always anticipating change and making sure that what you put in place is robust and ensured against future change.” For Garner that means making sure the LLDC keeps some skin in the game through its soon-to-be-launched Stratford Waterfront JV. It can also look forward to hefty backing from Khan for the 2,500 homes in the final two neighbourhoods in the park, finally helping it to achieve those ambitious housing targets. To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette