The homes will be in towers up to 21 storeys tall, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

A CGI illustration of how the development is set to look like, Credit: St William Homes/Berkeley/Kanda Consulting

Plans for 643 new homes on the site of a former gas works have been provisionally greenlit, though concerns about piping lodged by the Environment Agency will need addressing.

Waltham Forest Council’s planning committee approved the scheme, which includes a new nursery and cycling routes, at a meeting on Tuesday (16th July).

Developers St William Homes – a joint venture between Berkeley and National Grid – was granted permission last year to build 573 homes on the land south of Clementina Road.

However, in August 2023 St Williams Homes unveiled plans for dozens more homes in towers up to 21 storeys tall, citing increasing costs due to “high inflation”.

In a newsletter, the developer justified the plans by saying the site was “comfortably capable” of more homes being allocated.

The former gasworks site is in the north western corner of Leyton Jubilee Park, bordering a residential street and some low-rise industrial buildings.

When the plans were put forward, residents living nearby campaigned for better management of contaminated soil. Pockets of land have become polluted by decades of gas production between 1853 and 2012.

St William has said it remains “open to dialogue” with neighbours about land remediation, after acknowledging it had been “affected by historic contamination”.

Once construction resumes, workers will begin digging up ‘hotspots’ of contaminated soil to be disposed of or treated off-site. The company has also committed to treating groundwater that has been residually affected.

The 643 new homes will comprise 82 studio flats, 218 one-beds, 266 two-beds, and 77 three-beds.

Around 166 homes will be classed as ‘affordable’ housing. Some 104 will be set at London Affordable Rent levels and a further 62 available on a shared ownership basis, where tenants buy a share of the house and pay the remainder in rent to the landlord.

The development will also feature a 50-place nursery, as well as walking and cycling routes to the nearby marshes and Lea Valley Regional Park.

Around 35% of construction jobs on the site will be for Waltham Forest residents, St William says, and it will create 90 apprenticeships and 32 work placements.

Residents initially attacked the proposals over their size, which some deemed “intrusive”.

Ben Copsey, a member of Community before Construction, previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “They’ve got a plan, they know what’s going to make it profitable and as far as I can see the council is perfectly supportive of this kind of intrusive, high-rise development with pepper-potted affordable housing.”

The Environment Agency initially objected to the plan over a variety of concerns, including potential flooding risks.

Though these were addressed by St William, it still recommended the council refuse the plans over the piping network, which it said was based on out-of-date information. The developers maintain the hydrology has not changed since data was recorded in 2014 and it will now be determined by a delegated authority, who will have the final say.

Waltham Forest has been pushing ahead with building new homes across the borough, amid what it calls a “housing crisis”. It recently gave provisional approval for 5,400 new residences in Leyton and will begin accepting applications from private developers.

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