Lea Bridge Station Sites - Developer Partner

The London Borough of Waltham Forest (“the Council”) commenced a procurement through Contract Notice 2019/S 070-165593 to appoint a development partner in relation to three sites adjacent to Lea Bridge Station in order to facilitate the delivery of a high-quality, residential-led mixed-use development; new station entrance and an improved public realm. The development partner was originally expected to deliver in the range of 300-320 homes and a minimum of 3000 sq. m. of commercial cultural spaces and 750 sq. m. of public space.

The original opportunity also required the development partner to construct a new entrance to the railway station as part of the scheme. Please see the Contract Notice for further details.

The Council entered the development agreement with London Square Developments Limited on 17 March 2021 and now intends to vary the scheme for the reasons detailed in this voluntary transparency notice. The original development agreement involved the Council granting a short-term building lease followed by the grant of a long lease of 250 years on completion.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) now requires schemes involving GLA funding for housing for sale, including shared ownership housing to be leased for at least 990 years. This change was introduced in November 2021, after the Council had entered into the development agreement.

The varied scheme would grant the 990-year lease to the developer up-front in place of the short-term building lease. The number of residential units to be delivered by the scheme will be varied to increase from 320 to 387 and the number of affordable units varied from 120 to 387 (i.e. the residential element of the scheme will be entirely affordable housing).

The original structure involved a short-term build lease with the longer lease granted on golden brick for the site with affordable units and granted on practical completion for the sites with private units. The varied structure would transfer the freehold interest in the sites to the developer once the units have achieved golden brick stage.

The varied scheme will retain forfeiture provisions in the lease to enable the Council to terminate if the development agreement is terminated because the conditions have not been satisfied by the longstop date or because the developer materially breaches the development agreement so that it is terminated prior to the “golden brick” stage. There will be restrictions in the lease controlling permitted development on the site.

The Council has therefore retained similar controls over the development to replace the short-term building lease of the affordable units. Additional works are now required to be delivered by the developer to relocate high voltage cables detected on the site.

This complication also increases the cost of relocating the gas pipe required under the original scheme. The estimated cost of additional and revised utilities works is £4.79m which the developer intends to finance through GLA grants.

The Council would have received a guaranteed land payment under the original scheme on the commercial basis of the developer receiving a profit on cost of 14.5%. This payment was to reimburse land assembly costs of £2.5m plus a land value.

The overage provision in the original scheme was 55 / 45 in favor of the Council on sales overage above a £ per sq. ft. threshold. However, it has become necessary to adjust this considering inflationary build costs pressures and regulatory changes following the passing of the Building Safety Act into law, to maintain the scheme’s viability.

The varied scheme will reduce the developer’s profit on cost to 11.7% and remove the guaranteed receipt. Half of any additional profit will be shared by the developer with the Council up to a cap of £2.5m plus the cost of borrowing incurred by the Council to assemble the required land.