Southwark Council's planning committee has approved a development in Blackfriars, London, which will generate £65m for the authority for affordable housing.

Councillor Fiona Colley, cabinet member for regeneration and planning, said: "This project will feed into our direct delivery programme and aspiration to build 11,000 new council homes over the next 30 years. We will get a multi-million pound sum to build affordable homes, some of which (in phase two of the programme), will be in the same postcode, in the north of the borough.

"It makes absolute economic sense to use our successful developments to fund thousands of offset new homes in the borough when a much smaller number of affordable homes could reasonably be built on site."

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The site is approximately 2.1 hectares and comprises the land occupied by Sampson House, 64 Hopton Street and Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, and the arches under the railway viaduct between the two buildings. It is bound by the Thames Path and Blackfriars Station (southern entrance) to the north, Hopton Street to the east, Southwark Street to the south and Blackfriars Road to the west.

Following the negotiations with the DVS, the applicant has offered to make a commuted payment of £65m in lieu of providing any affordable housing either on or off site.

The money secured through the commuted sum would be used to deliver more affordable housing through the council's directly funded housing delivery programme. The council's cabinet initially pledged to build 1,000 new council homes by 2020. A further commitment has also now been made to build a further 10,000 council homes (therefore 11,000 in total) over the next 30 years.

(CD/IT)