Tesco’s latest plans for the redevelopment of the former Government offices site in Tolworth have once again hit the headlines.

Originally, the former supermarket giant had intended to build a hypermarket, then down-scaled to a supermarket, and has now further down-sized to a convenience store as part of a large mixed-use scheme, almost entirely residential, with 705 new homes, in a mix of lowrise and high-rise buildings.

Within this, the developer is proposing a level of affordable housing, so miniscule you would need a microscope to find it.

Less than 100 affordable units are planned, far below the borough’s targets of 50 per cent in schemes of more than 10 units.

The site was labelled in its core strategy policy in 2012 as a key area of change, where high-quality improvements to the site would be sought, and presumably demanded.

While no one is resisting the redevelopment of this site, the council is, even to the untrained eye, missing a trick if it is happy for the developer to get away with such a dismal proportion of affordable units at this time of rising house values.

I am hearing and reading of other smaller schemes where landowners are successfully arguing for no social housing, and this significant site bears all the hallmarks of one opportunity where the council could conceivably play tough and secure the future for a great many of its residents.

At a time where it is becoming impossible for young residents to even put a foot on the very lowest rung of the housing ladder, surely the council has a duty to help keep these people within the borough.

Or is it more interested in the Tesco pound? After all, every little helps.

SEANIE O’SHEA
Via email