The Secretary of State George Osbourne has approved plans for a residential development in London.

Essential Living is to proceed with developing the Theatre Square development adjacent to the tube station at Swiss Cottage.

Plans include building 200 residential apartments and ancillary commercial uses.

Scott Hammond, MD at Essential Living, said: "This has been a lengthy process but we are very pleased the Secretary of State has backed the independent planning inspector's recommendation that this important proposal for the regeneration of Swiss Cottage should proceed. This is entirely consistent with the original positive recommendation of Camden Council planning officers and the support received from both the Greater London Authority and Design Council.

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"As we always believed it would, the extensive scrutiny of the scheme during the public inquiry has revealed the significant social benefits of the scheme in terms of new homes for rent and community space, enhancements to the street level frontages and the recognised attractive quality of the design. This is the right decision for the revitalisation of Swiss Cottage and we will now commence the work to deliver our proposals which we will be calling Theatre Square."

Construction is to begin this year, with units available to rent in 2018.

(LM/CD)