Khan buys hospital site to boost affordable homes

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has bought land at a London hospital to use as a site for new affordable homes.

The mayor has used £12.8m from his £250m Land Fund to buy a 1.4-hectare site at the North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton, located in the London borough of Enfield.

The site, which currently comprises of a car park, offices and hospital testing facilities, is expected to deliver over 200 homes with 50% of these set to be social rented or otherwise affordable housing.

Construction of the new homes is set to start before March 2022 once the facilities currently on site have been relocated to other parts of the hospital.

James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and residential development at City Hall, said: ‘The Mayor and I are determined to do everything within our power to build more social rented and other genuinely affordable homes for Londoners.’

‘Under Sadiq, City Hall is taking a far more active approach to unlocking sites across the capital. We are using the Land Fund he established to buy sites like this one in Enfield, where we will be able to build genuinely affordable homes whilst protecting healthcare for the local community.’

It is expected that the sale of the site will also help to deliver better health facilities for the hospital and increase its capacity.

The sale forms part of the hospital trust’s Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), its five-year plan for health and care services in its area.

The site had previously been owned by the Department of Education-owned property company LocatED which planned to use it as the site of a new school.

However, this plan fell through which gave City Hall the opportunity to purchase the land.

Maria Kane, Chief Executive of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust said: ‘This investment is a fantastic opportunity to develop the area around North Middlesex University Hospital.

‘We’re looking forward to working with the Greater London Authority to make best use of the land so that it better meets the needs of people who use the hospital and benefits our local community.’

The £250m land fund used to buy the site forms part of Khan’s strategy to build more homes in London and increase the city’s proportion of affordable homes.

The fund aims to acquire and prepare land for new and affordable housing, with the money made from selling land used to buy further land for new homes.

Image credit: Nico Hogg