An expanded planning request for 770 homes at the former Lea Bridge gas works site off Orient Way were approved yesterday (3rd March), reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
Plans for tower blocks spanning 770 homes have been approved by Waltham Forest Council, despite strong opposition from locals.
Proposals for the former Lea Bridge gas works were green-lit by Labour councillors for the third time at a meeting last night (3rd March).
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.
The housing scheme has substantially grown in size since Berkeley Homes’ plans for 573 flats were rubber-stamped in 2023.
A second round of plans, upping the count to 643 homes, were provisionally approved last year and councillors have now backed a second increase of 127, bringing the total number of flats to 770.
The towers will stand as tall as 26 storeys, up from the previously approved limits of 18 and 21 storeys.
A representative from Berkeley Homes said the “regulatory and economic landscape” had shifted “significantly” over the past eight years, and the changes meant the homes would be “compliant and, crucially, deliverable”.
He added that “rising build costs, inflation, regulatory pressures, a softening sales market and an acute housing crisis” had created “major delivery challenges,” which require “cross-sector collaboration”.
But while councillors who supported the plans pointed to the borough-wide shortage of housing, locals have staunchly opposed the ballooning project.
In an impassioned address to the planning committee, Walthamstow resident Liz Biggs said it was “time to say no,” adding: “This council declared a climate emergency.
“You cannot reach Net Zero 2030 by stacking concrete 26 storeys high.”
They have also attacked the “disappearing” number of affordable homes.
The share of affordable homes – aimed at buyers who cannot afford to get on the property ladder – shrunk from 27% to 21% in 2024, and the developers now say it is “subject to viability”.
Berkeley Homes said the scheme could not “viably” deliver affordable housing without a grant, and the offer of 123 homes was dependent.
“We are trading 26-storey towers for a vague promise of ‘maybe’ providing homes,” Lea Bridge resident and Green Party candidate Solène Fabios said.
“There is zero social rent tenure. This is a private profit-grab, plain and simple.”
She added: “As local residents predicted, this isn’t a housing crisis response; it’s ‘tower inflation.’ Every time they delay, the buildings get taller and the community benefits disappear.”
The former gasworks site is in the north western corner of Leyton Jubilee Park, bordering a residential street and some low-rise industrial buildings.
Though Conservative councillor John Moss opposed the plans, they were ultimately approved by the four other committee members.
The land has been allocated for homes under the Local Plan, which guides development in the borough. The council has laid out sites across the borough where it aims to see a total of 27,000 new homes built by 2035.
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