Woolwich student housing boom gets underway

A site in Woolwich that was formerly home to a Catholic social club is now a buzz of activity as work on a student block proceeds.

The site will see 299 student beds close to the town centre with Hurlington behind the project.

Courtesy Hurlington.

It won’t extend all the way to Premier Inn with a gap between. That now also looks like being filled with further student housing after Hurlington purchased that plot and embarked on consultation in recent months.

They seek to build a further 120 student rooms in the gap.

The first block now underway has taken years to commence. The Catholic Club closed around a decade ago with little happening until recently.

Catholic Club site sat empty for a decade

Rapidly growing sector

Many more student housing developments are proposed nearby in Woolwich including along Beresford Street. One major site is at the former Woolwich Polytechnic school opposite.

Public land there was sold – and nothing has happened for many years.

Site on left set to see further student development

A sadly familiar story both in the town and beyond despite an ever worsening housing crises building in recent decades.

Town centre land formerly in public hands now empty for many years. Student rooms proposed

Now another application is coming for student accommodation on MacBean Street and they’ll be more on that project on the site soon.

Then further north and it’s another similar story. Public land featuring Riverside House office block was sold. Now plans are in for conversion of the tower.

Riverside House plan

Income

Not only have many public sites been sold to then sit vacant for many years but gaining revenue from future sites will also be limited.

Unfortunately Greenwich Council didn’t increase Community Infrastructure Levy rates on student development when revising rates six years later than first proposed – costing the borough much in lost income for residents and services during that time.

Greenwich bottom for CIL revenue

As a result Greenwich fell to the bottom of all London authorities with a CIL charging schedule by 2020/21.

As part of the belated recent review the council’s external consultants didn’t look at changing low student development rates on developers, claiming this was due to requiring precise data locally which was lacking.

A commitment in 2015 to revise rates in 2018. It never happened.

However other boroughs without exact and specific local data have previously managed to revise rates by taking a “general” view at similar areas.

After all, forthcoming growth tenures such as student development and co-living lack a direct precedent in many parts of the capital.

Regardless, Greenwich Council didn’t adjust and thus this current building boom for students (and co-living in the near future) and unchanged low rates will see a lack of incoming funds compared to many similar areas of London.

Student tower proposed beside o2 and north Greenwich station. Very low CIL rates in place beside Zone 2 tube station

Bear in mind these areas in Woolwich are now five minutes from Canary Wharf and 15 from the City – to give two examples.

And n places such as north Greenwich are a few minutes from London Bridge, Canary Wharf and Stratford.

Missing the boat again to capitalise to benefit the borough? Looks like it.

 

------------------

Running a site takes time and costs money.

You can support me via Paypal with a one-off or monthly donation here

Another option is via Patreon by clicking here

You can also buy me a beer/coffee at Ko-fi here

Many thanks

There's also a Facebook page for the site here

J Smith

I've lived in south east London most of my life growing up in Greenwich borough and working in the area for many years. The site has contributors on occasion and we cover many different topics. Living and working in the area offers an insight into what is happening locally.

    One thought on “Woolwich student housing boom gets underway

    • There will hundreds of student rooms across the Borough which in its self is excellent idea to house students together.
      But when are Greenwich Council going to start building more suitable homes for older and disabled people. After Greenwich Council sold off a lot of their sheltered accommodation to private developers.
      Greenwich Council want peopke to downsize from larger under occupied homes to smaller suitable hones. But homes designed for older and disabled peopkes are judr not available to them and the majority can not fo do want to be moved in to high rise tower blocks for a number of reasons including health and mobility issues..
      Please also consider more homes for the elderly and disabled in future planning applications for larger developments.

      Reply

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.