Havering Council grant planning permission for redevelopment of St George’s Hospital

Havering Council Regulatory Services Committee has resolved to grant outline planning permission for a residential-led redevelopment of St George’s Hospital, London. The 29 acre site is currently vacant and falls within the green belt.The applicant, NHS Property Services, submitted two separate outline planning applications. The first application is for the redevelopment of a new healthcare facility together with parking, access and infrastructure.The second proposal is for a residential-led redevelopment. This will see the delivery of open spaces, a park and 279 new homes, 15% of which will be allocated to affordable homes. Existing buildings will be converted to provide 75 of these homes and a new build development will be constructed to provide 204 new units.NHS Property Services previously submitted an application for the same site in November 2015 but the council resolved to refuse planning permission. Reasons for refusal included the redevelopment having a “greater impact on the openness of the green belt” and “harmful to the visual amenities of the green belt”. The internal layout of four units also failed to “achieve the minimum Nationally Described Space Standard”.Planning officers worked with the applicant to address their concerns and made amendments to the proposal. The revised application increased the amount of open space; reduced the development area, building footprint and building height; and revised the floorplans to meet the minimum requirements.The committee concluded that the revised proposal would have no greater impact on the openness of the green belt than the existing buildings and that “subject to strict controls relating to the extent of demolition, retention of specified buildings, the development envelope and height and other design requirements that the proposals meet the necessary tests and that they demonstrate a meaningful reduction in terms of impact compared to the previous refused residential scheme”.