More than 900 student rooms and 59 social homes could be built in Millwall after Tower Hamlets councillors voted narrowly to approve them.
Four members of the Aspire Party voted to reject the plans at a strategic development committee on Wednesday but five other councillors – Labour members and independents – voted in favour.
Aspire committee member Saied Ahmed called for more socially rented housing, and said the student accommodation would “change the demographic of the area”.
But Labour councillor Asma Begum said the amount of social housing included was “very rare” and had “made me inclined to support this application”.
Property developer CCP Pepper wants to build the housing on land currently occupued by office buildings at Muirfield Crescent, Pepper Streer and Millharbour in the Isle of Dogs.
The development would include accommodation for 918 students, and 59 socially-rented homes. These would be built across three tower blocks, two of 28 storeys and one 14 storeys high.
Plans by another developer, Healey Development Solutions, to build 319 homes on the site was previously granted after an appeal to the government’s Planning Inspectorate in 2018.
However, this was never built and developers say it is no longer viable.
Canary Wharf ward councillor Maium Talukdar, who is also Aspire’s deputy mayor, asked the committee to reject the plans.
Cllr Talukdar said: “Student accommodation does not meet the housing needs of our residents.
“We need to maximise genuinely affordable housing on a site like this.”
Isle of Dogs resident Andrew Wood – who is standing to be elected as an independent councillor – also objected.
Wood said he was worried about what would happen with the site in between the time the current buildings are demolished and construction on the new ones begin.
He said: “What normally happens is developers come along and they knock the site down, and the site is dead for years.”
Tom Slingsby of CCP Pepper said the development would provide “much-needed socially rented homes”. He said it was “a fundamentally improved and more balanced proposition” than the previous plan.
James Greenwood of the London School of Economics, which will use 51 per cent of the student bedrooms, said demand for student accommodation “significantly exceeds supply.”
He said: “Over 150 of our students currenly live in privately rented accommodation within Tower Hamlets, often in shared HMOs competing directly with local residents.
“Purpose-built student accommodation enables those students to move out of conventional housing, releasing existing homes, including family-sized properties, back into the wider housing market.”
Council planning officers recommended that the nine-strong committee vote to approve the plans.
They said the new scheme would provide more social housing than the previous plans – which included 24 privately-rented “affordable” homes and 13 for sale in shared-ownership schemes.
The four Aspire councillors on the committee disagreed. Cllr Ahmed said: “We need more affordable homes.”
However, Labour’s Cllr Begum welcomed the amount of social homes. She said: “It’s very rare to see social housing as social rent and I think that is really, really important.”
Cllr Begum also welcomed the plans for student flats. She said: “Young people, students, a thriving business economy, we need every bit of that as well.”
Independent councillor Kabir Hussain agreed. He said: “I think it’s a very good application and we should respect the officer recommendation.”
Aspire councillors Iqbal Hossain, Gulam Kibria Choudhury, Saied Ahmed and Amin Rahman voted against.
However Labour councillors Begum, Shubo Hussain and Leelu Ahmed, and indendents Hussain and Jahed Choudhury voted in favour.
The five councillors also voted to add a conditon to the approval that demolition should not happen until a contract for the development has been awarded. The Aspire councillors abstained.
