Whatever the outcome of this battle between developer and local authority, high-rise blocks should not be the future
The demolition of two new apartment buildings at Woolwich’s Mast Quay would be daft. The claimed reason – 26 deviations from the development’s 2012 planning permission – cannot justify planners pulling down the £36m high-rise blocks, embodied carbon and all. The developer, Comer Homes, seems to have slashed the proposed roof garden and playground, and pulled back on balconies, disabled access and overall quality. But that does not make the towers uninhabitable. I am sure you can see a dozen worse towers from its top floor.
More than a third of Mast Quay’s 204 units have reportedly now been rented – a two-bedroom flat is around £2,000 a month – with 126 still empty. Like towers across London, the block could well lie mostly empty as an asset on a company’s books until the market improves. But what Greenwich may have envisaged as a luxury riverside hub for young urban professionals is now plainly not what it expected. The council is understandably eager to put things right. It is furious and wants the “mutant” blocks to come down. The developers are appealing the decision, suggesting the council’s public statements were “inaccurate”.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
