Several developments in Southwark will now provide far less affordable housing than they were originally supposed to, amounting to a loss of more than a thousand affordable homes.
In 2025 we saw local opposition ramp up to Berkeley Homes’ plans to transform Peckham’s skyline with the construction of a cluster of high rise blocks looming over Rye Lane.
More than 400 people marched through Southwark in March in protest against the plans after Berkeley said that, of the 900 homes, just 12 per cent would be affordable.
Lawyers for Berkeley, the council and campaigners faced off in a planning inquiry to determine the fate of the scheme in October, with Berkeley arguing that 12 per cent was all they could afford and warning that refusing the application would leave the Peckham land lying empty.
The Peckham redevelopment is one of a cluster of schemes that will not provide the 35 per cent affordable housing that was originally promised.
We revealed that the Canada Water Masterplan in Rotherhithe could contain as little as 3 per cent affordable housing. Essentially, this means that from the original promise of around 1,000 affordable homes, British Land is now claiming it can currently build as few as 100.
Another Berkeley scheme on the Old Kent Road will now contain only 80 affordable homes out of 1,000.
The current course of events locally has been partly dictated by changes in regional policy, with the Mayor recently dropping the requirement for developers to provide 35 per cent affordable housing to 20 per cent.
London needs more homes, but is stacking the planning system in favour of developers really going to resolve Southwark’s housing crisis, or will it only lead to more homes being built that Londoners cannot afford?
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