Objection to 2026 Revision to Planning Application 2025/0484/P – Section 73 Application for Homebase/O2 Centre/ Car Park - from West Hampstead Liberal Democrats
Summary
1. We are writing to object to the revised Section 73 Application for the O2 Centre site redevelopment, submitted in January 2026. This application reduces the proportion of affordable housing to just 20% of the total, in both Phase One (the detailed element) and across the whole Masterplan, following the Labour Government and Labour Mayor of London’s policy changes made at the end of 2025.
(www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-announced-to-ramp-up housebuilding-in-london.) The application also significantly downgrades the Community Centre from a prominent standalone building to a smaller facility underneath the affordable housing blocks, effectively depriving West Hampstead residents of a community asset.
Comments on Previous Applications
2. In our objections to the original planning application, determined in 2023, the Liberal Democrats made it clear that we agree with the principle of development on this site. Unlike the local Conservatives, we did not seek to defend a large, surface-level car park between two tube stations. We know that there is a severe housing shortage in the borough, and we support new housing on this site, as set out in Camden’s Local Plan and the Fortune Green and West Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan.
3. We objected to the original planning application because, at 35% affordable housing, it did not meet the Camden Council’s policy, which states that new developments should include 50% affordable housing, and because it proposed less than half of the open space required to meet Camden’s Council policy. We also expressed concern about the impact on overcrowding at West Hampstead Tube Station, about the height and density of the development (not compatible with the London Plan) and that the application didn’t meet Camden’s net zero target. Despite these issues, the original application was approved by both Camden’s Labour Council and the Labour Mayor of London, and the Conservative Secretary of State refused to call it in.
4. Early in 2025, Landsec, the developers submitted a Section 73 Application, seeking to vary the planning approval. The main changes included increases to the height of the housing blocks, with two storeys being added to three of the tallest blocks and extra stories to five other blocks. This took the tallest block to 17 storeys, plus two 16 storey blocks. We objected to this application for a number of reasons:
a. Taller blocks will have a more detrimental impact on the view from surrounding conservation areas including West End Green and South Hampstead. We noted that Labour Councillors who were part of the Strategic Panel (SP) and council officers, including those on the Design Review Panel (DRP), had been pushing the developers to increase the height of the blocks across the north of the site.
b. Severe impact on the residents in Rosemont and Lithos Roads, whose homes overlook the north side of the site, in terms of sunlight loss and overshadowing.
c. An increase in the total number of flats in Phase One to 651, taking the plans even further away from the Council’s own Local Plan and Site Allocations Plan, with consequential impacts on local transport and other infrastructure, especially West Hampstead and Finchley Road tube stations. The planned S106 contribution towards step-free access at West Hampstead tube station is less than half of the total cost, and there is no contribution to or timetable for step-free access at Finchley Road.
d. No improvement in the proportion of affordable and social housing, and limited improvement in the amount of open space (still less than half of the council’s policy requirement).
The 2026 Revised S73 Application
5. The revised S73 Application, submitted in January 2026, takes advantage of new measures announced in Autumn 2025 by the Labour Government and the Labour Mayor of London (HOMES FOR LONDON: A PACKAGE OF SUPPORT FOR HOUSEBUILDING IN THE CAPITAL” available here).
6. Among other things, these measures provide for:
a. A time-limited planning route, enabling developers to secure planning permission without a viability assessment on private land where they commit to 20 per cent affordable housing, of which half will be eligible to receive grant funding;
b. Temporary relief from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), including 50 per cent of borough CIL relief available for qualifying schemes which commit to delivering at least 20 per cent affordable housing in line with the new time-limited planning route.
7. Landsec’s revised S73 Application therefore proposes:
a. Only 20% affordable housing across the Masterplan as a whole.
b. In the detailed element, the proposal is now for 21% affordable housing by habitable room; 19% by floorspace. This comprises a reduction of 92 affordable homes in Phase One to only 100 affordable homes (out of 651). All the affordable housing is now in one block (N4).
c. Even this level of affordable housing is subject to Landsec successfully applying for grant funding; if it is not available they may revise the plans yet again.
d. A reduction of 50% in the Community Infrastructure Levy funding paid to Camden Council to offset the impact of development locally and across the borough as a whole.
8. In addition, the revised S73 application includes a major downgrade of the Community Facilities provided in Phase One. In the 2025 application, Landsec made much of their plans for a “large, standalone community & cultural centre at the heart of Phase One” with “an enhanced connection to the linear park”. The pavilion building, which was intended to house this community centre, is, in the revised application, to be turned over to commercial use. Instead, community facilities, roughly 15% smaller in size, are to be provided on the ground floor of the affordable housing block, implying that it will become more like a tenants’ hall than a centre of benefit to residents from across the development and wider West Hampstead. This is extremely disappointing, given that many local residents contributed time and effort to giving their views on the Community Centre in detailed consultation sessions, all of which have now been ignored.
9. We object to this Planning Application.
Cllr Janet Grauberg, Patrick Stillman, Aarti Wadhwani
West Hampstead Liberal Democrats