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Mayor of London approves 700 homes for Mount Pleasant site

Having doubled the amount of affordable housing that was originally proposed, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has approved plans to build almost 700 homes on parts of the Mount Pleasant postal sorting site in central London.

The site straddles the London boroughs of Islington and Camden and after both councils missed deadlines to consider the applications, applicant Royal Mail Group requested the Mayor take on the role of planning authority for the scheme. The Mayor's planning team has worked closely with Royal Mail Group as well as the local councils, and has been able to negotiate for the development to include 24% affordable housing instead of the originally proposed 12%.

Martin Gafsen, Royal Mail Group Property Director, said: "I am delighted that the Mayor of London has given permission in principle for us to develop parts of our Mount Pleasant site in central London that are surplus to our operational requirements. This is a great opportunity for us to contribute to the regeneration of the area around our iconic mail centre building.

"The next step for Royal Mail is to complete the design of the pre-development works at Mount Pleasant, which are vital to separate our mail operations from the planned residential areas. Royal Mail will continue to work with the GLA, local authorities, businesses and the community as we progress with our development."

In total, the scheme will see the construction of 681 homes, 163 of which will be affordable. Of those, 98 will be affordable rent and 65 will be shared ownership. The affordable rent homes will be an average of 44% of the full market rental value in the area and some of the larger family units could be between 20 to 30% of the full market rental value. There will also be shops, offices, restaurants and public space on half of the site.  

The remaining half of the Mount Pleasant site will continue to be a postal sorting office, employing up to 3,200 people. Planning permission is subject to the completion of a Section 106 Agreement.

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