Merton Council committed at a Cabinet meeting this week to an ambitious affordable house-building target by 2026, identifying six further sites across the borough for potential housing development to bring the number of new affordable homes on council owned land to around 400.   

The new sites are at: Chaucer Centre, Morden; Gifford House, Morden; Worsfold House, Mitcham; Battle Close, South Wimbledon; Sibthorpe Road, Mitcham; and Hallowfield Way. All sites are allocated in Merton’s Local Plan for housing development. 

These are in addition to four Council-owned sites already earmarked in August for building more than 90 affordable homes on. It was agreed to set aside £300,000 to update plans on these sites, bringing them up to current building regulations and standards. 

These sites are: Elm Nursery Car Park, Mitcham (21 homes); Raleigh Gardens Car Park, Mitcham (36 homes); Land at Canons, Madeira Road, Mitcham (18 homes); and Farm Road Church, Morden (18 homes). 

Last month, London’s Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, Tom Copley, visited the sites accompanied by Council Leader Cllr Ross Garrod and Cllr Andrew Judge, Cabinet Member for Housing and Sustainable Development. 

Cllr Judge said: “Merton Council has a new focus on ensuring residents have access to decent housing including a range of actions to improve standards in both private rented and housing association homes. 

“Residents also find it very difficult to access new homes that are both decent and affordable and we will do everything we can to make this easier.  

“As a start we are using council land to build 93 affordable homes with high standards of energy efficiency. Over four years we have a target of 400 such homes on council land.   

“The housing crisis that residents experience every day won’t be solved easily, but our ambitious plans for building homes on our own land, alongside other measures, will make a start to address this.”