London mayor spends £13m on hospital land for affordable homes

The mayor of London is investing nearly £13m in a 200-home scheme due to be built on land formerly occupied by hospital facilities in north London.

Sadiq Khan is using £12.8m of his £250m Land Fund to buy a 1.4ha site at the North Middlesex University hospital in Edmonton on which to build the homes.

The facilities currently occupying the site – a car park, offices and hospital testing facilities – will be transferred to other parts of the hospital.

Half of the homes will be for social rent or other “genuinely affordable” housing. Construction is due to start before March 2022.

The land being acquired by the mayor was previously owned by LocatED, the Department for Education agency responsible for delivering the Academy schools programme, as the location of a new school.

The mayor’s office said this plan subsequently fell through, leading to LocatED seeking to dispose of the land.

The sale was part of North Middlesex University Hospital Trust’s NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). STPs were established in 2015 to encourage collaboration between healthcare providers to improve services.

The GLA and the North Middlesex University Hospital Trust worked together to guarantee the sale of the land met a number of the mayor’s assurances around STPs, including proposals to close beds being “an absolute last resort”.

Maria Kane, chief executive of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust said: “This investment is a fantastic opportunity to develop the area around North Middlesex University hospital.

“We’re looking forward to working with the Greater London Authority to make best use of the land so that it better meets the needs of people who use the hospital and benefits our local community.”