Post Grenfell reforms blamed for tower planning breaches
A riverside apartment complex has been threatened with demolition after a London borough authority found the built scheme significantly differed from proposed plans.
Greenwich Council have ordered a developer to tear down the 204-home tower block although Comer Homes – developers behind the project – have claimed that post Grenfell fire safety reforms motivated it to breach planning permission.
Original plans to construct the apartment complex were granted in 2015, however, since they have been delivered, they don’t match what was proposed.
Lawyers for Comer Homes have referenced an email sent by Comer Group project director Jack O’Brien in 2021, informing the council that it would be upgrading its cladding to an A-rated aluminium finish due to ‘company policy post-Grenfell’.
They wrote: ‘As we understand it, the council argue that because building works had got underway at a time when building regulations had not yet been tightened up to the extent, they now have in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy, there was no legal requirement to switch away from the facade treatment in the permission.
‘Aren’t we simply in a position where [Comer Homes] was convinced that it needed to build differently to the pre-Grenfell permission, whereas the council now advised by the consultants it has assembled for this inquiry consider that conviction was misplaced.’
However, the council have cited other changes to the development that concern more than just the façade. Greenwich highlighted problems have steamed from changes with massing, poor wheelchair access and a lack of promised commercial space, car parking and green landscaping.
The council have described Comer’s plans to change the development as ‘wilful and deliberate’. Going forward, Greenwich plan to argue that the development provides ‘low-quality living conditions’ by breaching building regulations on overheating and failing to offer residents enough outdoor space or daylight.
The inquiry for this problem was launched on 23rd July and is expected to last until the end of August – the outcome will determine whether the homes at the Mast Quay build-to-rent development will be axed.
Image: Dorin Seremet
