Singapore Oodles – A Major Boost For London Homes
London’s Mayor has launched a ‘Singapore style’ development arm for London with absolutely oodles and oodles of investment to redevelop a key site in the Royal Docks.
This is a landmark moment as the City Hall Developer initiative is launched and set up to be an active developer with an initial £100 million being committed to the Silvertown Partnership, supporting the delivery of 7,000 new homes – but this is intended to be just the first in a major pipeline of sites that Mayor plans to unlock through City Hall Developer.
The model inspired by the way new homes are built in Singapore, where the state plays a central role in housing delivery.
Greater London Authority
It will actually be the Greater London Authority (GLA) that invests to become part of the Silvertown Partnership which is focused on the Royal Docks in East London.
Around 1,000 of the new homes are expected to be under construction by 2028.
Active development
The announcement, which represents one of the largest investments made by any Mayor of London into a single development site, was made during the Mayor’s trade mission to Singapore and Japan, where he is promoting London as a global destination for investment.
This marks a significant step towards City Hall becoming an active developer, intervening in London’s land market to maximise affordable housing delivery and accelerate the speed of building, rather than solely funding or supporting third parties.
The City Hall Developer initiative is being supported by nearly £2 billion from government in grant and low-interest loans at 0.1 per cent for the first time, helping housing associations boost the delivery of much-needed new homes.
In Singapore there has been a strong government involvement in housing for decades, with the state responsible for building around 80 per cent of homes and owning the vast majority of land. This approach has enabled sustained, large-scale delivery of housing and integrated urban development supported by long-term public investment.Co-investment
The agreement at Silvertown is an example of City Hall playing a more direct role in delivering homes, including through joint ventures and new financing approaches to unlock challenging sites across London. It highlights how the Mayor and GLA Group are working to increase housing supply by improving affordability and accelerating the pace of housebuilding. This includes preparing sites which the market is unable to take forward alone, through co-investment and interventions that help enable development.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “This is a new era for housebuilding in London, with City Hall investing directly in new homes, unblocking stalled sites and speeding up development.
“It has been fascinating to visit the Pinnacle housing development in Singapore and see at first hand the impact of a state-led housing model. By becoming part of the Silvertown Partnership, we can have a similar impact in the Royal Docks, where we plan to deliver 7,000 new homes.
“However, housebuilding continues to be impacted high interest rates, the rising cost of construction materials, the impact of the pandemic and Brexit and Building Safety Regulator delays. That is why I will continue to make tackling our housing crisis a top priority as part of my ongoing work to build a better and fairer London for all.”
Docks unlocked
Ed Mayes, Executive Director of Development for the Silvertown Partnership, said: “This agreement is an important step forward for Silvertown and reflects the strength of our new partnership with the Mayor of London. This investment provides the certainty needed to unlock a complex site that has remained dormant for decades, allowing us to accelerate new homes, including affordable housing, alongside a vibrant new town centre for the Royal Docks.
“Over the past five years, the sector has faced exceptional pressures. In this context, co-ordinated public sector investment is a meaningful intervention that enables delivery where the market alone cannot. With this support in place, Silvertown can continue to make progress and realise its potential as a thriving new neighbourhood for East London.”
Newham
Mayor of the Borough of Newham (where Silvertown and the Royal Docks sit) Forhad Hussain said: "Having City Hall as part of the Silvertown Partnership is a gamechanger for Newham and our ambitious long-term plans for the Royal Docks. It means thousands of new homes over the next few years and crucially more affordable homes in the places where they are needed most.
"The new approach by City Hall will give Silvertown the shot in the arm it needs to reach its full potential as East London's new waterfront neighbourhood, while protecting the existing communities who have called the area home for many years."
Mine’s a Guinness
Catriona Simons, Group Chief Executive at The Guinness Partnership, said: “We are delighted to be delivering 734 much needed affordable, energy efficient homes in Newham. We have already welcomed 47 residents into the first 106 newly completed affordable homes, which will be part of this vibrant new neighbourhood, in the heart of East London. Along with partners and contractor Lendlease, we look forward to being part of Silvertown’s exciting future.”
Silvertown
Silvertown is one of the Royal Docks most significant regeneration sites, having laid dormant for more than 40 years eluding the attempts of successive mayors and governments to regenerate it. Its transformation is already advancing at pace as part of the Mayor’s vision for the site to become a vibrant new town centre for the Royal Docks. A revised masterplan for the project was signed off by Newham Council in December to deliver 7,000 homes, 1,800 of which will be ‘affordable’.
The 60-acre site is owned by GLA Land and Property. Work is already underway to deliver a total of seven million square feet of residential, commercial and public space.
Get Britain Building
More broadly, the Mayor plans to build more than 36,000 new homes and create 55,000 new jobs across the Royal Docks as part of his vision to transform the area into a thriving, new waterfront district, which includes new homes on the water and the capital’s first large scale floating park and lido.
Earlier this year, Sadiq Khan announced that his new City Hall Developer Investment Fund is making £1.5 billion available in very low-cost interest loans for housing associations, helping to accelerate the construction of new, affordable and social housing across the capital. It brings the fund’s total investment to £1.82 billion, close to City Hall’s £2 billion ambition.
This funding will be used by the Mayor to provide grants to unlock development, where there’s a need for wider investment in infrastructure and loans where developers have specific issues over accessing finance, costs and terms.
For this venture, the GLA will become a 50 per cent shareholder in The Silvertown Partnership which is the organisation responsible for redeveloping the area alongside Lendlease, a developer with proven expertise in complex urban and regeneration projects. It also forms part of Lendlease's conditional joint venture with The Crown Estate.
The Royal Docks is one of largest regeneration areas in London, with seven significant developments being brought forward across 175 hectares of public land belonging to the GLA, representing a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial developments. Approximately £5 billion of investment is planned for the area over the next 20 years.
This goes even further than developments such as Barking Riverside, where the GLA has entered a joint venture focussed on remediating land, masterplanning, placemaking and delivering infrastructure, with plots disposed to other partners to deliver homes.
Picture: The Mayor of London and representatives of the Silvertown Partnership visited Singapore’s SkyResidence development in Queenstown. This is one of the first schemes delivered by Singapore’s public housing authority, the Singapore Housing and Development Board’. Here they were able to tour the sky garden offering extensive skyline views of Singapore’s housing developments to see at first-hand the transformational impact of state-led housing delivery.
www.mayoroflondonhomes.london.gov.uk
