The EG Interview: David Lunts on getting London’s largest regeneration on track

Boris Johnson, a knighted architect and a used car dealership are just some of the obstacles that have stood in the way of the £26bn regeneration of London’s Old Oak and Park Royal – the largest regeneration project ever attempted in the capital. Back in 2015, then-mayor Johnson set out a vision for a new Canary Wharf in west London – but with no capital to invest. A year later, Sir Terry Farrell, the architect, branded the project a “cock-up”, chastising the progress of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation established to oversee it. Last year, a row with major landowner and car dealership Cargiant saw the OPDC abandon some of its strategic sites and a £250m government grant. None of these problems has proven insurmountable, but the project has been adapted and altered along the way. Now the OPDC has rewritten its masterplan for 25,500 homes and 9.4m sq ft of employment space, and brought in David Lunts, the mayor’s former head of housing and land, with a new strategy to deliver the goods. For Lunts, the setbacks are just part of the journey; no project of this scale is going to run smoothly from the start. “There’s no doubt we have taken some knocks. It’s an easy project to knock,” says Lunts in his first interview as chief executive of the OPDC. “But how many setbacks did King’s Cross get before Argent finally got it going? Think about the Docklands – it took a long time, a number of failed schemes and a very high-profile bankruptcy before Canary Wharf actually took off.” The truth is, to really drive these plans forward and create this new urban district, we can’t do this on our own. We certainly can’t do it without the private sector and we can’t do it without support from government. Despite living just down the road from Park Royal for a decade, Lunts’ first impressions were of a “slightly unknown zone” sandwiched between the familiarity of central London and commuterville. “Like a lot of people, I thought that unless you were going to buy a used car or you worked there, there wasn’t a lot of reason to go.” Having changed his mind, Lunts now relishes the challenge of changing others’ views of Old Oak. “One of the real advantages we have is that a lot of people either simply didn’t know about Old Oak, or if they did they thought, ‘This is hopeless, this is just a disaster zone, there is no way that anything will ever happen here’,” he says. “You can rapidly change people’s perceptions of these places, both as places to invest and potentially to live and work.” Lunts later admits that he too once considered the regeneration “a bit of basket case”, quickly adding: “But I’ve been reprogrammed. I now believe it.” As the OPDC launches a new plan and a fresh bid for government backing, he wants the private sector to believe it too. New sheriff Development at Old Oak has been kick-started by the long-awaited approval of the £1.3bn High Speed 2 Interchange at Old Oak Common. The interchange will link eight cities with the Crossrail Elizabeth Line. As HS2 progresses, OPDC’s own delays now mean that land dedicated to construction will form the basis of the new masterplan, under which development will shift to the west . “The Western Lands conjures up images of prairies and cowboys and Indians,” says Lunts. “The Wild West – it’s probably not a good look, actually.” But with a sprawling site of 1,600 acres and a history of warring landowners, it’s possibly a fair depiction. That would make Lunts the new sheriff in town. After two years as interim chief executive, Lunts left the GLA in January to take on the full-time role at the OPDC. During his eight years at City Hall, he established the 160-strong housing and land function, progressing major schemes including those at the Royal Docks, Barking Riverside and Greenwich Peninsula. “I have always got very excited by big, complicated regeneration projects. That’s what I love doing,” he says. “What the OPDC offers is the chance to focus 100% on one big project.” This means complicated problems, partnerships and, most importantly, says Lunts, “influence over reshaping a piece of the city”. The plan will seek to tap public land and includes four strategic site allocations. At Channel Gate, land from Network Rail, the Department for Transport and private landowners has been earmarked for 3,100 homes. A further 750 homes could be developed at the DfT’s North Pole East depot. Intensified SIL at Old Oak North could see around 2.3m sq ft of industrial space, with up to 228,195 sq ft at the European Metal Recycling site. Then there is Old Oak Station, where land from HS2 and DfT could deliver a further 1,500 homes. Lunts reels off developers, schemes, street names and fresh opportunities on Atlas Road, Willesden Junction and Scrubs Lane, among others. A virtual tour around what he calls “our patch” can leave your head spinning. Back to that plan, then. If step one is the masterplan, step two will be a fresh bid to government for up to £200m in grant funding for early enabling infrastructure. The OPDC aims to tap the upcoming National Home Building Fund, the affordable housing fund and retention of future business rates uplift. “If our plans proceed as we hope they will, we are keen to start thinking about how we get the opportunity to the market, to find private sector partners to work with,” says Lunts. That is likely to be a fresh challenge. Essential ingredients At times, Lunts has felt “green with envy” of an organisation like the London Legacy Development Corporation, based only 12 miles away from Old Oak but existing in what can seem like another world. The LLDC was set up following a £9bn investment in the Olympic Games, with land ownership and supporting infrastructure including Stratford Station, Westfield shopping centre and the stadium – arguably a much easier pitch to the market than the one the OPCD will have to make. “We have had planning powers but we haven’t had the land assets or the substantial capital programme we needed,” Lunts says. “And so we have been wrestling with these big ambitions without the essential ingredients to make it happen.” We have been wrestling with these big ambitions without the essential ingredients to make it happen. In its first five years the OPDC has seen 6,000 planning approvals compared to 10,000 at the LLDC, with 1,400 completed homes and a further 1,500 due to complete imminently from first-movers including Notting Hill Genesis, Fairview and L&Q and City & Docklands. But without skin in the game, how do you inspire and co-ordinate development at scale? “That’s a key question, and at the moment we are having a lot of discussions with central government around that,” says Lunts. “There is a very powerful case for having some sort of proper co-ordination of how that public sector land is brought forwards – seeing that land as a strategic portfolio, rather than a series of one-off development sites, something that will deliver more than just the sum of its parts.” To do this, the OPDC will need to establish authority as more than just a masterplanner. Instead it will need to be  a “landowner or land organiser”, Lunts says. “The truth is, to really drive these plans forward and create this new urban district, we can’t do this on our own. We certainly can’t do it without the private sector and we can’t do it without support from government.” So, if a developer wants to build 2,000 homes within the regeneration, who should they speak to? “My advice would be to continue these discussions with OPDC,” Lunts says. “If you want to do a scheme as big as that then we are talking about strategic sites, and 2,000 homes may not be ambitious enough.” Those discussions can begin now, as the OPDC negotiates how it brings that public land forward with central government. “This isn’t an abstract point, a ‘wouldn’t it be nice’. We are deeply engaged with government.” Land currently occupied by construction activity will free up in the next few years as Network Rail reviews its freight sidings and work on HS2 progresses. The OPDC wants to get to market long before then, with early work to secure detailed planning and infrastructure delivery providing serviced plots to start building. “I’m tempted to say that I’m glad we have been slightly frustrated and stalled in our timeline, because we’ve got the opportunity here working with partners to create something that speaks to how London needs to evolve,” says Lunts. Developers will seek lower price points after the pandemic, and the expanse of Old Oak provides an opportunity to explore how homes, workspace and greenery can come together on a single site. And now public-private partnerships are no longer just a buzzword. “It’s just a reality, it is in the DNA of anyone looking to do serious projects in London,” says Lunts. Calls and e-mails from investors on the hunt for a big development opportunity only reinforce his confidence in market appetite. “There is nothing I’d love more than to have a portfolio prospectus that says ‘I’ve got half a dozen sites or one massive site – come along and invest in it’. It is going to take a little bit of time to get to that point. But there is no reason why we can’t get there sooner rather than later,” he says. “Once we get our plan adopted and one or two other things, my view is: form an orderly queue and we’ll talk to all of you.” To those impatient investors hammering on the door, Lunts reiterates, an answer is coming. The OPDC has overcome so many barriers already – as Old Oak gathers pace, don’t expect tumbleweed in this part of town.   To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette Pictures © OPDC