New masterplan reboots 4,500-home Earls Court scheme

Rob Heasman, CEO of Earls Court Development Company, said: “This 40-acre site is perhaps Central London’s most significant redevelopment opportunity.”The aspiration is for the development to incorporate the first large-scale zero carbon energy sharing network in the UK, enabling local people to benefit from cost-effective heat networks.The masterplan will evolve over the course of this year with a planning application due to be submitted by the end of 2023.The first phase of development, comprising 1,300 homes, the park and vital east-west connections is due to start in 2025.Heasman added: “Up to 15,000 jobs will be created with the development becoming a research and development hub for green tech, attracting businesses which have a role in transforming our future by responding to the climate crisis.“The development will integrate culture and public realm throughout, responding to the number one stated desire from local people to have green and open spaces across the site. “We have an ambition to be a global exemplar of responsible, sustainable development, putting people’s health and well-being first.”In recent years it has lain derelict, the Exhibition Centres closed in 2014 and were demolished in 2015 by the previous owners Capco. Crucially previous controversial plans to demolish West Kensington and Gibbs Green housing estates at the vast site have been canned.