12 March 2016 – by Alexander Peace

Housing association L&Q has taken over the delivery of one of east London’s biggest housing schemes from Bellway Homes.

Plans for Barking Riverside will see 10,800 homes delivered on 442 acres through a joint venture with the Greater London Authority.

The joint venture, known as the Barking Riverside Partnership, is 51% owned by L&Q and 49% by the GLA, which will share the cost of land preparation and planning. The entire scheme will have a gross development value of more than £3bn.

L&Q will then have the option to buy about 50% of the scheme as it comes to market and to develop all of the affordable homes, which could be around 33% of the total.

Bellway will retain the option to buy 25% of the land once it is ready for development.

The remaining land, in addition to any option not taken up by L&Q or Bellway, will be sold on the open market.

There are already about 1,000 homes on the site. The scheme originated in 1994 as a partnership between Bellway, English Partnerships and Barking and Dagenham Council.

L&Q said it intends to quadruple the rate of housebuilding at the scheme to 600 a year.

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“With L&Q coming in the way it is, it enables Barking Riverside to be built out much more quickly, because we effectively deliver a wider range of tenures,” said Jerome Geoghegan, director of development at L&Q.

He said L&Q’s general business model was to provide a mix of 30% private sale, 30% private rent, 20% submarket rent and 20% shared ownership, but this varied scheme by scheme.

L&Q will buy out Bellway from the partnership and incur some existing costs, such as section 106 agreements.

It has also agreed to pay £70m towards the £263m extension of the London Overground to a new station at Barking Riverside, which is set to complete in 2021.