Catalyst Development at Harrow Road NW10

I didn't report any more on the flats and studios at Plough Close on the Harrow Road that I visited some time ago.

The site is on the boundary of Brent and Hammersmith & Fulham, so that the Borough boundary actually runs along the back garden fence of the block facing Harrow Road. This meant that the same development had to apply for permission from both Brent and Hammersmith & Fulham. To make matters worse, Catalyst (the Housing Association that led the development) bought the land in 2005. In 2006, the administration in both Boroughs changed, with the HF side changing their planning policy quite drastically from one which only accepted the loss of employment land in return for 100% affordable housing to one that insisted on shared ownership for affordable housing. This was a particularly bad time for shared ownership as the housing market tanked so it has ended up being 100% affordable rented housing after all.

Firstly, it strikes me as remarkable that the development happened at all. It illustrates the unnecessary difficulties created by our illogical Borough boundaries that I have blogged on in the past. Secondly, there is quite a contrast with the Tories in Hammersmith, who appear to have bent their planning policy for ideological reasons, and our own Tories, who disagreed with most of our planning policy, but lacked the intellectual wherewithal to change it.