Delay hits £50 million Mile End housing scheme

A US-style community land trust bidding to turn a former east London NHS hospital into low-cost homes will have to wait until next year to find out whether it has been successful.

The East London Community Land Trust has teamed up with developer Igloo and Maccreanor Lavington for a £50 million-plus Homes & Communities Agency scheme earlier this year to build more than 300 homes at St Clements Hospital.

Its bid centres on putting one third of the planned 100 affordable homes on the open market at just 25% of their true market cost. The trust is being advised on its bid by US housing group Champlain Housing Trust which is based in Vermont.

Three other bids – led by Wates, Galliford Try and Hadley Mace – were also hoping to find out this week who had landed the deal.

But a HCA spokeswoman blamed the procurement process for the delay. She added: “Given the level of interest shown by the local community in St Clements, we are extending the procurement process to further explore the possibility that some of the affordable housing is delivered by a community body, such as a Community Land Trust. This means the procurement process is taking slightly longer than originally anticipated.”

A decision is due next spring.

Built in 1849 as a workhouse for the poor, the hospital in Mile End closed six years ago.