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The Mayor of London has announced a further four Housing Zones across London, accelerating efforts to deliver the new housing that the rapidly expanding city needs. The new zones in the boroughs of Havering, Enfield, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets will together deliver over 12,000 new homes, nearly 3,500 of which will be affordable housing. This will bring the number of Housing Zones announced to 15 with a total of 45,109 homes created, 14,055 of them affordable. A total of £162 million in funding will be contributed by the Mayor to the new Housing Zones as are a collaborative effort between the Greater London Authority, the government and local boroughs to streamline approval processes and fast track development in areas where it may not otherwise happen. Included in the new Housing Zones will be two brand new rail stations, a large new park, new primary schools, and new retail and entertainment precincts. They will revitalise currently disused brownfield sites and turn them into neighbourhoods where Londoners will work, live and visit. ‘Housing Zones will provide the swift delivery of new homes for Londoners that is so desperately needed and create entirely new, highly connected urban districts for generations to come,’ said the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. ‘By freeing up empty brownfield sites from lengthy approval processes and providing a funding boost, we can ensure new housing capacity is created in areas where it might never otherwise have happened,’ he explained, adding that the four new zones brings the project within touching distance of the 50,000 new homes target. Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone in the borough of Havering is one of the biggest development sites at 12 square kilometres, and will include the new Beam Park rail station with 20 minute access into the heart of London. The Housing Zone will include the Beam Park site recently released by the Mayor for development, the largest slab of land that had been in the Mayor's portfolio. The council plans on creating a new garden suburb from former industrial land with 3,457 new homes, 941 of them affordable. ‘This is incredibly exciting news for the residents in Rainham, and the Borough as a whole. The changes this funding will allow us to implement will have a lasting positive impact on their lives,’ said Havering council leader Roger Ramsey. Meridian Water Housing Zone in the borough of Enfield will build 3,650 new homes in a development designed to complement the riverside canal district it is situated on, of which 1,460 be affordable. The Housing Zone will contribute to the development of Meridian Water station, currently Angel Road station, which will have four trains an hour running into central London by March 2018 under the Stratford to Angel Road rail scheme. In early June a procurement process was launched to secure a master developer for the project. The Ilford Town Centre Housing Zone in the borough of Redbridge will capitalise on the arrival of Crossrail to the area by… Taylor Scott International
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