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London council cancels development JV

Haringey Council has cancelled its development joint venture with Lendlease, despite threats of legal action from the developer.

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Picture: Luke Barratt
Picture: Luke Barratt

The north London council voted to scrap the £4bn Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) – a 50/50 JV between the local authority and Lendlease – at a cabinet meeting last night.

 

Instead, Haringey will set up its own wholly owned development company to provide affordable homes in the borough.

 

It had been widely expected that the council would scrap the HDV following local elections in May, when cabinet members opposed to the project were elected.

 

But ahead of last night’s meeting, Lendlease had written to the council to confirm that it was still willing to work together but would “seek to protect Lendlease’s interests” if the HDV was abandoned.

 

In the letter, Dan Labbad, chief executive of international operations and Europe at Lendlease, wrote: “Whilst our strong preference is to work as your partner in delivering on our joint commitments to provide new housing and regeneration, if the cabinet decides to attempt to reverse our appointment as the successful bidder, we will have no choice but to seek to protect Lendlease’s interests given our very significant investment over the last two and a half years.”

 

The council will pay Lendlease £520,000 to cover costs incurred on setting up the HDV.

Speaking last night, Mr Labbad said Lendlease had made “a very significant investment over the last three years, in good faith, and [we] don’t want to see that investment thrown away in a matter of weeks, especially when the need for partnership hasn’t changed”.

 

He added that the company was “ready and prepared” to work alongside the council in creating a wholly owned development vehicle.

 

The HDV was established in November 2015 to build 6,400 homes over 20 years.

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