Mayor launches ‘Singapore style’ development arm for London with £100m investment to redevelop key site in Royal Docks

The model draws on the way many new homes are built in Singapore which has seen strong government involvement in housing for decades, with the state responsible for building around 80 per cent of homes and owning the vast majority of land. This approach has enabled sustained, large-scale delivery of housing and integrated urban development supported by long-term public investment.

The Mayor and representatives of the Silvertown Partnership marked the agreement during a visit to Singapore’s SkyResidence development in Queenstown. This is one of the first schemes delivered by Singapore’s public housing authority, ‘Singapore Housing and Development Board’. Here they were able to tour the sky garden offering extensive skyline views of Singapore’s housing developments to see at first-hand the transformational impact of state-led housing delivery.

The agreement at Silvertown is an example of City Hall playing a more direct role in delivering homes, including through joint ventures and innovative financing approaches to unlock challenging sites across London. It highlights how the Mayor and GLA Group are working to increase housing supply by improving affordability and accelerating the pace of housebuilding. This includes preparing sites which the market is unable to take forward alone, through co-investment and interventions that help enable development.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am delighted to be launching our groundbreaking ‘Singapore-style’ housing development arm for the capital today.

“I'm proud to be investing £100m – one of the largest investments made by any Mayor of London – to help build and deliver thousands of new, high-quality and affordable homes at Silvertown.

“This is a new era for housebuilding in London, with City Hall investing directly in new homes, unblocking stalled sites and speeding up development.

“It has been fascinating to visit the Pinnacle housing development here in Singapore and see at first hand the impact of a state-led housing model. By becoming part of the Silvertown Partnership, we can have a similar impact in the Royal Docks, where we plan to deliver 7,000 new homes.

“It builds on our record investment of nearly £12 billion through my Affordable Homes Programme to deliver social and affordable housing across London and our package of pro-housing emergency measures with government to turbo-boost the delivery of new homes in the capital.

“However, housebuilding continues to be impacted by a perfect storm due to the disastrous legacy of the previous government, high interest rates, the rising cost of construction materials, the impact of the pandemic and Brexit and Building Safety Regulator delays. That is why I will continue to make tackling our housing crisis a top priority as part of my ongoing work to build a better and fairer London for all.”

Ed Mayes, Executive Director of Development for the Silvertown Partnership, said: “Today’s agreement is an important step forward for Silvertown and reflects the strength of our new partnership with the Mayor of London. This investment provides the certainty needed to unlock a complex site that has remained dormant for decades, allowing us to accelerate new homes, including affordable housing, alongside a vibrant new town centre for the Royal Docks.

“Over the past five years, the sector has faced exceptional pressures. In this context, coordinated public sector investment is a meaningful intervention that enables delivery where the market alone cannot. With this support in place, Silvertown can continue to make progress and realise its potential as a thriving new neighbourhood for east London.”

Mayor of Newham Forhad Hussain said: "Having City Hall as part of the Silvertown Partnership is a gamechanger for Newham and our ambitious long-term plans for the Royal Docks.

"It means thousands of new homes over the next few years and crucially more affordable homes in the places where they are needed most.

"I welcome the Mayor of London's ambitions for both Silvertown and the wider Royal Docks. The new approach by City Hall will give Silvertown the shot in the arm it needs to reach its full potential as East London's new waterfront neighbourhood, while protecting the existing communities who have called the area home for many years."

Catriona Simons, Group Chief Executive at The Guinness Partnership, said: “The Guinness Partnership welcomes the Mayor’s announcement. We are delighted to be delivering 734 much needed affordable, energy efficient homes in Newham. We have already welcomed 47 residents into the first 106 newly completed affordable homes, which will be part of this vibrant new neighbourhood, in the heart of East London. Along with partners and contractor Lendlease, we look forward to being part of Silvertown’s exciting future.”

Silvertown is one of the Royal Docks most significant regeneration sites, having laid dormant for more than 40 years eluding the attempts of successive mayors and governments to regenerate it.

Its transformation is already advancing at pace as part of the Mayor’s vision for the site to become a vibrant new town centre for the Royal Docks. A revised masterplan for the project was signed off by Newham Council in December to deliver 7,000 homes, 1,800 of which will be affordable.

The first phase of development is delivering 1,032 homes, with more than half of those affordable, and The Guinness Partnership welcomed the first residents on site earlier this year.

The 60 acre site is owned by GLA Land and Property and work is already underway to deliver a total of 7million square feet of residential, commercial and public space. The site also includes the east London landmark, Millennium Mills, best known in recent years for its appearance in film and TV shows.

A new pedestrian and cycle bridge across Royal Victoria Dock is also progressing, supported with funding by the London Borough of Newham. The bridge will improve connections to Custom House and the Elizabeth Line.

More broadly, the Mayor plans to build more than 36,000 new homes and create 55,000 new jobs across the Royal Docks – as part of his vision to transform the area into a thriving, new waterfront district, which includes new homes on the water and the capital’s first large scale floating park and lido.

Earlier this year, Sadiq announced that his new City Hall Developer Investment Fund (CHDIF) is making £1.5 billion available in very low-cost interest loans for housing associations, helping to accelerate the construction of new, affordable and social housing across the capital. It brings the fund’s total investment to £1.82bn, close to City Hall’s £2bn ambition.

This funding will be used by the Mayor to provide grants to unlock development, where there’s a need for wider investment in infrastructure and loans where developers have specific issues over accessing finance, costs and terms.

The Mayor is continuing to work closely with the Government to boost delivery and is committed to building on the progress which has already made to tackle London’s housing crisis, with more new council homes started under Sadiq in London than at any time since the 1970s and, prior to the pandemic, more new homes of all tenures completed in London than at any point since the 1930s.

On average, Sadiq is delivering over 10,000 more new homes in the capital each year than the previous Mayor and since 2018, nearly 30,000 council homes have been built – or are being built – with the help of City Hall funding. And last year, the number of council homes completed by London boroughs through GLA-funded programmes was at its highest level since 2016-17.

The Silvertown Partnership has already benefited from £233 million in infrastructure loan funding from Homes England to unlock the site’s potential.