'the stakes are high. The last time anyone had a large site like this was in the 19th century...this is it. This is the last piece of central London available to develop in one contiguous piece.'
Roger Madelin, Chief Executive of Argent. A large area around Kings Cross has been designated an 'opportunity area' and Camden Council has approved a major redevelopment scheme. Argent, a 'commercial office and mixed use developer' had its planning application approved in March 2006. The proposal involves 1,946 homes, a community centre and leisure facilities, shops and the possibility for a casino. At the heart of the plans is a massive 450,000 sq m of office space. Local groups feel the plans will create a new Canary Wharf, focused on long-distance commuter-fed corporate headquarters and destroying the existing mixed community.
Roger Madelin, Chief Executive of Argent. A large area around Kings Cross has been designated an 'opportunity area' and Camden Council has approved a major redevelopment scheme. Argent, a 'commercial office and mixed use developer' had its planning application approved in March 2006. The proposal involves 1,946 homes, a community centre and leisure facilities, shops and the possibility for a casino. At the heart of the plans is a massive 450,000 sq m of office space. Local groups feel the plans will create a new Canary Wharf, focused on long-distance commuter-fed corporate headquarters and destroying the existing mixed community.
- Major concerns include:
- The loss of historical and heritage buildings. According to the King’s Cross Conservation Area Advisory Committee (KCCAAC), the "unique heritage of this site... stands to be severely compromised and damaged."
- The potential impact of this massive development on marginalising existing communities
- Employment opportunities for only top-income corporate jobs and lowest-level service jobs. Kings Cross Railway Lands Group (KCRLG), a local group monitoring plans for the area for the past 20 years, suggests that gentrification could drive out the small businesses and charities that are currently dominant, creating a less sustainable local economy and lower quality jobs.
- Crucial missed opportunities for urgently needed council housing and for environmentally sustainable development. Clearly, the King’s Cross site is a major asset and opportunity for developers, due to its size, the imminent opening of the Channel Tunnel rail link, and the two local councils’ eagerness to see the area changed. Camden and Islington’s Joint Development Brief of January 2004 stated that "the two councils wish to see major development and regeneration started, and completed, as soon as possible," a wish that invites developers in and may predispose the authorities to look favourably on plans. The value of the area is acknowledged by Camden Council, who call it "the most important interchange in Britain and one of the most accessible locations in Europe." Groups have suggested that the drive to profitability has resulted in plans that compromise the area’s needs; KCCAAC suggest that "Argent have sought to make a success of this scheme by proposing a greatly overscaled and mediocre environment indistinguishable from large developments elsewhere." The potential importance of the land for other uses would be lost under the plans. Of housing availability: only 40% will be affordable; 37-42% would be one bedroom and and studio units with only 27-33% three bed or over, compared with targets in the joint planning brief of up to 20% one bed/studio and 45-55% three bed or over, leading to accusations by local residents that lower-income families will be pushed out of the area by high-income single professionals. Affordable homes are themselves no alternative to the expansion of council or social housing stock, a major issue when a GMB survey has found that there is insufficient stock for people on the housing register. Camden came 85th worst out of 354 local authorities, with the number of housholds on the register, 16,532, just under half the number of total homes, 33,408. The Camden Federation of Tenanats and Residents Associations said that the site should include new council homes rather than private housing, and its chair stated that "these plans... have nothing to do with the people who live in the area... we will be forced to move." As Roger Robinson, a councillor, put it, "this piece of land in King’s Cross... is the last piece of land for housing programmes in Camden...once it goes it goes there is no way back." Clearly, the site is crucial; a one-off opportunity to developers, and a one-off opportunity missed for the communities of Camden and Islington. Communities feel excluded from the plans. Despite some leisure and community facilities, as well as affordable housing, the general impact in terms of gentrification and corporate redesign of the geography will see communities losing out. Camden's aim 'to achieve a new quarter within Central London,' is likely to be a separate community resulting in the displacement of low- and middle-income residents and businesses from the area according to KCRLG. Community groups also feel that they were exluded from the consultation process: even KCCAAC, a statutory body designed to ensure community involvement in planning in a conservation area, said, "not one of our many points appears to have been taken up in the amendments". KCRLG refer to "attempts within your council to prevent your constituents from lobbying you" and express concerns that the council had less than three weeks to assess the plans in an 800 page report which the Council described as "the most complex to be put before a Development Control Subcommittee in Camden." Outline permission has now been granted, but the Government Office for London and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have to decide whether to call in the application for a Public Inquiry. Their attitudes towards a drastic plan, that appears to offer opportunities for the few and remove them from the many, remains to be seen.