Camden Council statement on the sale of the land at the rear of the British Library
Date: 05/12/07
The Prime Minister has today announced that the land at the rear of the British Library has been sold to four organisations to make way for a UK Centre for medical research and innovation.
Cllr Keith Moffitt, Leader of Camden Council said:
“Camden Council will now be carefully assessing the proposed development including the medical research centre against our planning brief.
“Right from the start we have made it very clear to central Government that any proposed development must have the right mix of housing, employment and community facilities for King’s Cross and for Camden as a whole.
“Housing in Camden, especially affordable housing is in short supply and with our residential population expected to grow by 10% by 2016 it has to be a priority. The Council’s planning brief has laid down clear requirements for 50% or more of the new land use to be housing, and 50% or more of that to be affordable housing. We will be very disappointed if the proposed plan ignores this brief.
“Only a few weeks ago we were very much encouraged by the Housing Green Paper, particularly the Government's desire to better co-ordinate the use of public land to address the shortage of housing. However in this case the Government seem to have fallen at the first hurdle when it comes to putting their own policy into practice.
Contact: 020 7974 5717
pressoffice@camden.gov.uk
