Southwark Council resolves to approve residential use for proposed 'Quill' building

The Council initially granted planning permission in 2011 for the demolition of a 10-storey office building used by King's College and its replacement with a 'quill-shaped' tower rising to 31 storeys and containing 470 bedrooms for use by students.

Developer Bilford and property investment company Investream submitted revised plans for the site last year, reconfiguring the internal design of the proposed building to contain 119 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The revised plans also included 182 square metres of ground floor retail space, a community outdoor amenity space on the eighth floor and basement.

The equivalent of 28% affordable housing provision has been offered off-site under the scheme, against a local planning policy target of 35% affordable homes.

According to a report to the committee, the Council's planning officers and the Greater London Authority accepted "that the scheme would not be suitable for on-site affordable housing", which would require alterations to the building's design to provide a new core and a separate entrance, and that "a greater quantum of affordable units could be achieved off-site".  However, according to the minutes of the meeting, members of the committee were disappointed with the level of affordable housing offered and that provision would not be made on-site.

The development site lies within London's Central Activities Zone, the primary role of which is to encourage office and retail uses. However, planning officers were satisfied that the site was suitable for high density residential use, noting that the existing building was considered to be in ancillary education use rather than office use and that there was already "a substantial amount of office floor space coming forward in the area".