How the Construction Plan for 20,000 New Homes Has Been Decided By Transport For London? 

Transport for London owns approximately 2,226 hectares or 5,500 acres of land all across London. The property arms have the third position in being the biggest landlord with a portfolio value of 1.7 billion pounds. Graeme Craig runs this organisation as the first commercial director. TfL’s main job is to run buses and underground transport, but it has been holding on to the property, and after 22 years of construction, Craig has come forward with his plan to build houses.

Craig has been reported to be planning to build more than 20,000 homes, 1,650 of which are already under the process of construction. He says that he hopes to be building houses for the next ten years to follow. He wishes to become the most known house creator in London. His biggest construction plan is Earl's Court which is assumed to start in 2025. Earl’s Court is a sub-company set up by TfL and Delancey. The vision of this company is to bring back the wonders and surprises of certain iconic music and venues.

They not only plan to build houses but also venues, community halls, versatile gathering spaces and parks. These plans concentrate on providing jobs to 15,000 people. Half of the homes that will be built are to be inexpensive in nature. Some of them would also be put up on lease.

Transport for London does not promote their property sector by themselves. Instead, they have a separate division founded in 2012 solely for their property handling. Craig has said in an interview that given the impact of the pandemic, they were unsure of their success, but after receiving positive comments on their house project, he’s sure to pull through.

The new houses and complexes are planned to be scattered around the lands close to their stations. Many of these developments are supposed to be built on Tube Stations like East London,  Blackhorse View in Walthamstow, and London Mews in Barnet.

Craig added that they are going to primarily focus on built-to-rent homes, and they are trying to increase the developments. They expect to have 4000 new houses under construction by late 2022 in their 22 construction sites. They have already introduced new construction plans at the following areas: Annos Grove, Montford Place, and Nine Elms. Transport for London and Grainger, the development giant, have joined hands to build new projects. They have already been approved for a total of one sixty two new construction buildings over Arnos Grove's tube stations in February which is Grade II listed. Graeme explains that this is how they expect to generate long time revenues by separating commercial property financially separated from TfL. They now have enough budget to spend in property businesses around the transport network of London. 

According to the commercial development director of TfL, two third of the 20,000 houses they plan to build are already in the making. They have appointed their commercial partners in charge of this project and expect it to be completed in a decade. Their executives have also given their insights on planning to build houses at Southwark, Bank and Paddington stations, which will be commercial spaces on lease. TfL has also managed to bag the funding needed for these projects. An insider hinted that the Bank that is overseeing the development was able to secure approval for 12,000 sq meters of cabin area and 650 sq meters of retail space, however, there could be changes in the plans. 

The buildings to be built are comprised of both high- and low-rise flats. Their 619 homes across eight ownership and rent. Another rival company Network Rail sold their hundreds of railway arches in 2018 to a private organisation, Blackstone. But TfL has been holding onto their more than 800 arches and rented some of them. Their tenants have both medium and small tube stations and arches.

The Tenants of TfL

Carmen O’Neal is one of the tenants of TfL and the CEO of East London's Hackney Gin Distillery 58 and Co. She says that she accidentally found the arch when she was going through pregnancy and wished to possess the arch very severely. Her dream came true, and she established one of the UK’s first female-run distilleries, opening in 2019.

She adds that TfL was very supportive when the pandemic hit. They charged no rent to the company when her company had shut down most of their business according to the covid guidelines. The business reopened in July last year, and Carmen has introduced gin-making classes in the front yard. The whole gin-making production, bottling and labelling are done in the back of the yard. She says that her previous landowners sometimes felt uncontactable but does not feel like that with TfL.

Joseph Salama is another tenant of TfL who owns Jack’s Garage in Ladbroke Grove in west London. The company is specialised in VW, and they have recently started the business of battery-operated automobiles. The business was founded in 1995, and it is still run by Salma.

Salma regards TfL as his rescuers after the fire in 2017 in Grenfell Tower. Due to this accident, their customers could not get their vehicle parts delivered to them because roads were closed off. TfL gave the garage a six months period as gracing period and two of their arches for an extended amount of time for the survivors.

Final Thoughts  

Transport for London is the third biggest landowner right after the emirate of Qatar and the mayor of London. After disclosing their plans to start building houses, they could become the biggest housing developers too.

At the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, they tried their best to help their tenants by granting them a three-month exemption from rent and a three-month half rent period. They have helped small businesses as well as local communities during these hard times.