London homes plan rejected
Grosvenor Group, one of the biggest central London property owners, is facing rejection of its plan to develop more than 1,300 affordable rental homes in the Bermondsey district.
Planning officials recommended Southwark borough members vote against the plan next month, in part because they say the most affordable homes in the south London project would be too expensive for lower-income renters.
Grosvenor wants to create a £500m (€575m) neighbourhood on the site of a former biscuit factory, which would include a school, office space, and food and drink outlets.
Grosvenor is owned by the Duke of Westminster’s family trusts and its estate includes hundreds of acres in London’s Belgravia and Mayfair.
Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor became the seventh Duke of Westminster after the death of his father Gerald in 2016.
He has a net worth of about €10.8bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Grosvenor has pitched the project at Londoners who can’t afford to buy and don’t qualify for social housing by offering to discount the rent on a greater proportion of the homes.
