Some of this entry was posted on 23 May 2024. The number of subscribers has more than doubled since then. Given the significance of the content, it seems timely to repeat it, albeit with updates. It will be interesting to see how much of it is addressed in the forthcoming inquiry about the plans for the Stag Brewery site. Are the issues political or planning?

A development of this nature requires the developer to pay to the local authority a charge known as the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). In the financial estimates provided to the Planning Committee in July 2023, when the Council first gave permission, it was said that the CIL generated would be £48 to £66 million. The amended scheme presented to the Planning Committee in January 2024 had increased to between £52.59 – £71.55 million. More recently figures of between £40 to £50 have been quoted. Naturally the Council claims that as a benefit of the scheme.

BUT there is no commitment for any of the CIL to be spent in Mortlake or East Sheen, though those wards will be the ones to suffer the maximum adverse transport effects. The CIL could be spent in those wards represented by Planning Committee members, none of whom are in Mortlake or East Sheen.

A second big financial issue is the profit to be made by the developers, Reselton Properties Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Developments Ltd, a Singapore listed company. They bought the Brewery site in December 2015 for £160 milllion. The Council approach to that company is that they are entitled to make a profit. And that is the basis for the calculation of the 7% of affordable housing to be provided. But did they pay too much? The Council seems to think that is irrelevant.

Reselton also bought the site for the development at Teddington Riverside, shortly before the purchase of the Stag Brewery site. That is now a 217 unit residential site with properties ranging from £600,000 to £1.5 million. There are fifteen units for affordable housing, giving a figure of 7%, remarkably similar to the number at the Brewery.

The Teddington site was completed in two stages in 2018 and 2021. Clearly the planning problems were not as great in Teddington. The problem there is that in the region of fifty of those properties remain unsold. Even at the cheaper end that leaves a hole of some £30 million. Plus a loss of Council tax.

Few doubt that the Brewery site needs development but do we really need 1048 residential units at Mortlake or does that simply assist with perceived financial viability? Surely not if they remain vacant?