British Land gets planning permission for Canada Water redevelopment

British Land said the creation of a new town centre at Canada Water in London passed a “key milestone” on Monday night as, Southwark Council’s planning committee resolved to grant planning permission for its masterplan, in line with their officer's recommendation.

The FTSE 100 property company said the Canada Water Masterplan was a 53-acre, mixed-use scheme that would deliver around two million square feet of workspace to accommodate around 20,000 jobs, about one million square feet of retail, leisure, entertainment, education and community space, and approximately 3,000 new homes, of which 35% would be classed as ‘affordable’.

It explained that, with wellbeing “embedded” into the masterplan, and buildings to support low carbon living, the project would also create 12 acres of new open space, including a 3.5-acre park, a new town square, the first new high street in London for a century, and 16 new streets.

“We have an incredible opportunity at Canada Water to create a vibrant neighbourhood for people to live, work and enjoy,” said British Land chief executive officer Chris Grigg.

“We're hugely excited about delivering this exceptional, mixed-use and sustainable landmark development, which has been designed to support people's wellbeing.

“We thank the council for all their hard-work and we look forward to continuing to work with them and the local community.”

British Land said the development would bring “significant” benefits to the local economy and the community, including new homes, generating jobs, supporting local businesses and independent retailers.

Space was allocated for the delivery of a health facility and a new police hub, it added.

As well as the outline masterplan, the planning permission also covered the delivery of the first three new buildings in the overall masterplan.

Those buildings included 265 new homes, a leisure centre, new public spaces, 330,000 square feet workspace and around 2,300 jobs, which could be delivered by 2024.

Building A1 would provide both residential and workspace, adn building A2 would be focused on workspace and a new leisure centre, with both buildings providing a small amount of retail at ground floor.

The third building, K1, would be wholly residential.

British Land said the 53-acre masterplan site included Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Surrey Quays Leisure Park, the Printworks and the former Dock Offices courtyard, with the board saying it expected the whole masterplan to take around 15 years to deliver.

The resolution to grant planning permission followed five years of “extensive” consultation and engagement with the local community and a partnership with Southwark Council, which entered into a conditional master development agreement with British Land last year.

“We are delighted that this major step towards our vision for Canada Water has been approved,” said Southwark Council leader, councillor Peter John.

“The masterplan provides the blueprint for an exciting new town centre that will provide thousands of new homes, particularly hundreds of new social rent homes, new jobs and opportunities, new open spaces and a brand new leisure centre for Rotherhithe in the first phase of the work.

“We look forward to working with British Land over the next few years to bring forward the plans and making sure our local residents are the beneficiaries of the opportunities the regeneration will provide, as laid out in the Canada Water Social Regeneration Charter.”