Central Somers Town development progress
Following recent requests for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to ‘call in’ Camden Council’s Central Somers Town Community Investment Programme (CIP) planning application, the council is pleased to announce that this request has been declined.
“We are pleased that the Secretary of State has confirmed that he will not call in this application and is content that it should be determined by Camden, the local planning authority.
“Camden Council and the GLA both carefully assessed the impact of the scheme on heritage assets and weighed these against the considerable public benefits which the scheme will deliver.
“We want to build a desperately-needed new primary school, children’s play centre, park and new homes in one of London’s most deprived neighbourhoods. The design of the buildings and open space has been very carefully considered and will be of the highest quality.”
Our 15 year Community Investment Programme (CIP) is investing over £1 billion into homes, schools and community facilities. It encompasses over 80 projects, ranging from large scale estate regeneration to smaller redevelopments and the disposal of under-used and expensive to maintain property.
A crucial feature of the programme is to make better use of our land, including redesigning housing estates and building private housing to finance regeneration. Through CIP we aim to build over 3,000 homes, invest around £117 million in schools and children’s centres, as well as deliver new community centres and emergency accommodation hostels. Only 2% of our capital programme up to 2025 will be funded from government grants.
In July we achieved planning approval for a major £30 million investment into our most deprived ward of Somers Town. The centre piece of the regeneration scheme is the creation of a fantastic new local primary school built to the highest standards.