StART Welcomes Catalyst as New Developer of St Ann’s, Landmark Tottenham Housing Development
The Greater London Authority has announced Catalyst as the new developer for the St Ann’s hospital site in Tottenham. Catalyst is a Housing Association based in North West London with over 34,000 homes in London and the South East, including many social sheltered housing developments, and has recently committed to be an early adopter of a new ‘Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing’.
The St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust, the community group responsible for successfully lobbying the Mayor to purchase the site in 2018 and which has been campaigning for genuinely affordable housing to be built on the site ever since, welcomed the news that a developer has been chosen for the site. StART Director, Tony Wood, said, “The people of Haringey have been calling for a development on St Ann’s that meets the needs of the local community. We hope that having a London-focused Housing Association like Catalyst on board will see the developer work with the local community and respect our wishes and desires for the site.”
“StART is keen to see the community’s vision succeed, for a St Ann’s development that is community-led, provides genuinely affordable homes, promotes health and wellbeing, and creates a green neighbourhood. We hope that Catalyst are planning a mixed-tenure development with housing of all sizes that will benefit local people while respecting the environment and protecting the historic Peace Garden on the site.”
Marlene Barrett, also a StART Director, said, “Local opponents of the original planning permission accepted StART’s design for higher density because of the increased proportion of the affordable homes on the site and the community involvement in the process.”
When the land of St Ann’s Hospital was first proposed as the site for a new housing development only 14% of those new homes were to be classed as “affordable”. The development took little account of the needs of local people facing a severe housing crisis. Following years of campaigning from StART, the GLA and Catalyst have committed to 60% affordable housing on the site. It’s StART’s desire that a large number of these are for social housing and that we can look at ways to go beyond 60%.
