The Mayor of London Boris Johnson unveiled the UK’s first ever urban Community Land Trust in Mile End this week, marking the start of Linden Homes’ St Clement’s development in the East End of the city.
The Mayor met with Linden Homes Eastern’s divisional managing director, Tom Nicholson and managing director Adrian Bohr. They gave the Mayor a tour of the site and more detailed information on the homes and regeneration being delivered.
Boris was given insight into the work that will be undertaken by Linden Homes to give this historic, but now abandoned, hospital site a new lease of life in what will be a pioneering scheme for the Capital.
Once the project is complete Linden Homes, working with the East London Community Land Trust, will have transformed the derelict area into a new neighbourhood of 252 high quality, bespoke homes. As well as a selection of exclusive private properties available at St Clement’s, 35 per cent of the homes will be designated to affordable and 23 of those will be delivered by the East London Community Land Trust (ELCLT). These properties will be the UK’s first urban CLT properties ever delivered to market.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “This innovative housing scheme has the local community at the heart of it and is delivering permanently low cost homes and creating jobs. I hope this is the first of many such schemes that transforms empty sites and helps ease housing demand. Parts of this historic building will be restored to its former glory so that the community can continue to enjoy this amazing, well-loved site.
“St Clements is part of a major land release, the size of 290 football pitches, which I’m implementing across the city to turbo boost house building. I’d like to congratulate Linden Homes and the East London Community Land Trust and all the partners involved for working with us on making this dynamic scheme a reality.“
Tom Nicholson, the divisional managing director of Linden Homes Eastern said the scheme could well act as a blueprint for future urban housing development in the UK:
“St Clement’s represents a £40 million investment by Linden Homes in the local community. While it will be an extraordinary scheme for London as the first urban Community Land Trust, in simple terms it provides homes, jobs and opportunities for local people.”
Adrian Bohr, the managing director of Linden Homes Eastern said: “We will be creating a new neighbourhood for Bow with the community at its heart. The conversion of the Grade II listed hospital buildings will also be complemented by high quality newly built homes.
“We expect that the local area will begin to benefit from the development even whilst it is being built. We will be recruiting about 20% of our construction workers from the local area and offering five apprenticeships to young people resident in the borough – so not only will they have work, but they will learn a trade for the future. Furthermore, we are also planning to procure at least 20% of our materials from local suppliers.”
With the work getting underway this spring, the first homes are expected to be released for sale in 2015.
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For further information, contact Tracy Mannion, Claire McCowan or Emma Cox at Remarkable Group on 01962 893893.
