Westminster CIty Council’s Planning Committee has granted planning permission for an application from Bourne Capital which fails to provide the number of affordable housing units as laid down by the City Plan.

The development proposals cover a large part of Queensway in Bayswater, W2. Part of the development is the construction of 61 housing units, with 8 flats at intermediate rents. This falls well below the requirement of the City Plan which would see 24 affordable homes (a mixture of social and affordable).

Westminster has a high level of homeless families in temporary accommodation (over 2,000 families). However, the developer, Bourne Capital, submitted a viability statement stating that to adhere to the City Plan would make the proposed development unprofitable.

In November 2019, according to The Ferret (an investigative journal) companies associated with Bourne Capital made a donation of £50,000 to the Conservative Party from an address in the British Virgin Islands.

https://theferret.scot/tax-havens-conservatives-libdems/

Councillor Guthrie McKie says:

“This is an outrage. We have families in serious need of decent houses and the developers and the Conservatives ignore their needs. Instead, they prefer to build expensive palaces in Bayswater which will be bought up by property speculators. It is time for the charade of viability assessments to be ended”