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Squire & Partners鈥� 拢1.5bn plans to redevelop a historic brewery site in south-west London have been approved on appeal following a 10-year planning battle.

The mixed-use proposals for the 9ha Stag Brewery site in Mortlake, designed for Singaporean developer Reselton, have already been given the go ahead three times but have been repeatedly rejected at stage two by London mayor Sadiq Khan.

Three versions of the plans have been submitted with the latest version containing 1,068 homes, a 1,200-place school, retail space, hotel, cinema, offices and nine acres of green space.

Located close to the finishing line of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, the scheme has faced opposition because of the perceived impact on its riverside site and its amount of affordable housing, which accounts for only 7.5% of homes in the latest iteration of the plans.

The Greater London Authority (GLA), which requires a minimum of 35% affordable housing under the London Plan, notified Reselton last year that it was likely to refuse the third version of the scheme.

Reselton then appealed against non-determination of the application before it could be refused, resulting in an inquiry.

The developer and its development manager Dartmouth Capital Advisors have agreed a community infrastructure levy payment on the latest scheme of between 拢48m and 拢60m to be paid to Richmond council.

Dartmouth Capital Advisors development director Guy Duckworth said: 鈥淥ur client bought the site with the benefit of a planning brief from Richmond council, the spirit of which our architects Squire & Partners have followed faithfully, and yet it has taken 10 years to obtain a planning consent.鈥�

The plans were first approved in January 2020 following amendments to increase the scheme鈥檚 affordable housing from 17.5% to 30%, with the application being rejected by Khan because it fell short of the GLA鈥檚 35% minimum.

Squire & Partners was ordered to rethink the plans, which Richmond council approved for the second time on 19 July 2023 despite the affordable housing being cut to 7.5% and the application racking up 673 objections, with just 19 public comments of support.

Just five days after this consent, former housing secretary Michael Gove announced plans to lower the threshold for second staircases in residential buildings from 30m to 18m.

The design team was sent back to the drawing board again to add a second means of escape to eight of the scheme鈥檚 21 buildings, resulting in a loss of more than 2,500 sq m of office space and the relocation of refuse stores in five buildings to basement level.

The project team includes planning consultant Gerald Eve, structural engineer Watermans, services consultant Hoare Lea, landscape architect Gillespies and daylight and sunlight consultant EB7.

Beer is said to have been brewed there since 1487 when it was part of a monastery. It later supplied British troops in India and the Crimea, and more recently was owned by Watneys, which renamed it the Stag brewery, and then by global drinks giant ABInBev which produced Budweiser there. Production ceased in 2015 when it was sold for 拢158m to Reselton.