星空传媒

Ujima Housing Association has lost almost 拢1.5m in Housing Corporation funding after developer St George cancelled a contract to build affordable housing as part of its flagship Imperial Wharf scheme.

Construction of up to 27 affordable homes for Ujima on the west London site was due to start this year. But a planning dispute between St George and Hammersmith & Fulham council has delayed the process.

Hammersmith & Fulham originally granted planning permission for 1665 homes at the site, more than 30% of which were to be for registered social landlords Ujima, Acton Housing Association and Family Housing.

As the first of three construction phases neared completion, St George submitted a planning application to fit an extra 300 homes on the site. Planning permission for these extra homes was refused. St George then cancelled its contract with Ujima.

St George has satisfied its annual section 106 commitments at Imperial Wharf having entered into contracts for 114 RSL-rented properties so far this year. The contract with Ujima, however, was intended to supplement the annual affordable housing requirement.

According to a council source: "It was made clear to the council that St George would only stick to the contract if it was allowed to add 300 units."

As a result Ujima will now have to reapply to the corporation for its share of this year's approved development programme for the project. Ujima received more than 拢26m in ADP allocation for 2002/03, the fourth highest in the country.

The council said it was aware that Ujima's ADP funding was threatened. Dame Sally Powell, deputy for regeneration at Hammersmith & Fulham, said: "The only people who will suffer as a result of this are the tenants who want to [move] into bigger and better housing.

"It's time for open-book negotiations so we know how much profit is being made by developers, so negotiations can be carried out properly."

Sue Belk, Ujima's development director, said: "The houses to be built for Ujima were additional to St George's section 106 commitments. The money will still be there in future and we fully expect the properties to be built next year or the year after that."

John Herron, land director at St George's central London branch, said: "We entered into a conditional contract with Ujima, which was dependent upon finding a solution to the proposal of finding additional units with the borough. Regrettably a solution has not been reached as yet."