Savills has secured full planning permission for Bellway Homes’ two flagship regeneration schemes in the heart of the Vauxhall Nine Elms and Battersea Opportunity Area. The Savills Planning Team was appointed by Bellway Homes (Thames Gateway) to provide planning consultancy advice in relation to the redevelopment of the former Christie’s warehouse site (40-42 Ponton Road), and subsequently the adjacent site at 46 Ponton Road, to deliver two high density, residential-led mixeduse regeneration schemes comprising more than 860 new homes (510 on the Christie’s site, and 357 on the 46 Ponton Road site). L&Q will deliver the affordable housing and PRS within the Christie’s development, and are a joint venture partner in the adjacent 46 Ponton Road scheme.
Savills are our preferred advisors and consistently deliver commercially viable planning permissions for our Division across London and the South East.
Tom Harris Land Director, Bellway Homes (Thames Gateway) Ltd
The sites are part of the wider Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area in the London Borough of Wandsworth, and will deliver exemplar schemes within the area in extremely prominent locations adjacent to the railway line into Waterloo, and with direct views of the new American Embassy.
The Nine Elms area has been shaped by the masterplan set out within adopted policy and, at the outset, the Council sought to promote a masterplan-compliant approach of up to 13 storeys at the Christie’s site. In seeking to maximise the site’s potential and following initial pre-application feedback from the Council, Savills was integral in recommending a design competition approach. Two leading architectural practices were selected as joint winners and this design competition approach was fundamental in securing buy-in from officers for significantly taller buildings (up to 19 storeys) than promoted by the accepted masterplan.
This design-led strategy allowed us to secure planning permission for a high density scheme with over 100 units more than the site was originally expected to deliver. This shows the value of investing in high quality creative architectural approaches to exceed client expectations.
Savills has subsequently been involved in securing a number of amendments to the permissions to ensure their deliverability, and most recently provided CIL advice to utilise a change in the CIL Regulations to deliver a saving on the 46 Ponton Road CIL liability of circa £1m.