Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has today rejected plans by Hammersmith and Fulham Council to cut the number of affordable rented homes at a development in the borough

The council had planned to cut the number of affordable homes at Genesis Housing Group’s redevelopment of the Prestolite Factory site in East Acton. The council had claimed the cut was justified because the ward in which the development was located had more social rented homes than the London average.

The original planning application for the site, made in July this year, included 148 affordable rented homes, equal to 33% of the total development. Following a council intervention, the number was reduced to 65 homes, but increased to 92 after the Housing Corporation intervened, a figure still a third down on the original application.

The borough’s statutory plan requires that 35% of new housing should be affordable.