Woolwich student housing boom gets underway

A site in Woolwich that was formerly home to a Catholic social club is now a buzz of activity as work on a student block proceeds.

The site will see 299 student beds close to the town centre with Hurlington behind the project.

It won’t extend all the way to Premier Inn with a gap between. That now also looks like being filled with further student housing after Hurlington purchased that plot and embarked on consultation in recent months.

They seek to build a further 120 student rooms in the gap.

The first block now underway has taken years to commence. The Catholic Club closed around a decade ago with little happening until recently.

Rapidly growing sector

Many more student housing developments are proposed nearby in Woolwich including along Beresford Street. One major site is at the former Woolwich Polytechnic school opposite.

Public land there was sold – and nothing has happened for many years.

A sadly familiar story both in the town and beyond despite an ever worsening housing crises building in recent decades.

Now another application is coming for student accommodation on MacBean Street and they’ll be more on that project on the site soon.

Then further north and it’s another similar story. Public land featuring Riverside House office block was sold. Now plans are in for conversion of the tower.

Income

Not only have many public sites been sold to then sit vacant for many years but gaining revenue from future sites will also be limited.

Unfortunately Greenwich Council didn’t increase Community Infrastructure Levy rates on student development when revising rates six years later than first proposed – costing the borough much in lost income for residents and services during that time.

As a result Greenwich fell to the bottom of all London authorities with a CIL charging schedule by 2020/21.

As part of the belated recent review the council’s external consultants didn’t look at changing low student development rates on developers, claiming this was due to requiring precise data locally which was lacking.

However other boroughs without exact and specific local data have previously managed to revise rates by taking a “general” view at similar areas.

After all, forthcoming growth tenures such as student development and co-living lack a direct precedent in many parts of the capital.

Regardless, Greenwich Council didn’t adjust and thus this current building boom for students (and co-living in the near future) and unchanged low rates will see a lack of incoming funds compared to many similar areas of London.

Bear in mind these areas in Woolwich are now five minutes from Canary Wharf and 15 from the City – to give two examples.

And n places such as north Greenwich are a few minutes from London Bridge, Canary Wharf and Stratford.

Missing the boat again to capitalise to benefit the borough? Looks like it.

Running a site alone takes time and a fair bit of money. Adverts are far from enough to cover it and my living costs as a private renter.