Green Party slams Battersea Power Station redevelopment as ‘colossal waste’

Battersea Power Station’s redevelopment has been slammed as a ‘colossal waste’ by Green Party housing spokesperson, Tom Chance.

The £8billion programme will build 3,444 new flats, 517 of them affordable, in the Grade II listed building.

Jane Ellison, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Battersea, has backed the scheme, with UKIP candidate Christopher Howe calling for planning control to be given to the local community

But Will Martindale (Labour), Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrats) and the Green Party have all expressed reservations at the site’s lack of affordable housing.

Luke Taylor argued earlier this month that the luxury million pound flats being built in the former power station were fueling London’s housing crisis.

Mr Chance said: “Battersea Power Station’s development is at the extreme end of what is wrong with London property development – very low levels of affordable housing.

“What will be built there is not going to be affordable for people in the area and most of the homes are sold to investors.

“It’s a colossal waste of a fantastic site that has been wasted for decades.”

David Cameron has said the iconic 42-acre site’s re-development will bring 20,000 jobs during construction, with 13,000 permanent jobs on completion.

But Mr Chance says Battersea residents will have to endure years of disruption, with building work not due to finish until 2018.

He said: “One of the worries is about the noise and air pollution of the construction, which we already have anyway in the Battersea area and across the whole of London.

“We want to see them put a special effort into controlling that pollution, especially when you have places down the road like Putney that are so well over the legal limits of pollution levels.

“We want to take those steps to reduce the impact on local residents.”