Sun Wharf, Creekside - Lewisham approves 605 student beds amid concerns of overconcentration

Lewisham council's strategic planning committee approved plans from Your Tribe to build 605 student rooms and 50 affordable homes at Sun Wharf, at its meeting on 24 February.

Your Tribe is a the Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) arm of property developer Aitch Group and the firm is snapping up an increasing number of sites in the area.

Existing buildings on the Sun Wharf site will be demolished and replaced with blocks ranging between 3 and 20 storeys. The 50 residential flats in the scheme will be split into 32 social rent homes, while the remaining 18 will be shared ownership.

Previously consented plans for the site provided 220 homes with towers up to 19 storeys high, but were abandoned in 2023. The developer said that financial pressures in the construction industry meant the scheme was no longer "deliverable".

Local residents had objected throughout the consultation, including at a final meeting on 16 January.

Concerns were raised about PBSA overconcentration in the area, whether student demand would hold up and the developer's argument that PBSA releases housing that can be used by families.

In addition there were concerns about loss of daylight and sunlight, the impact on vulnerable residents and harms to the river ecology.

Salamander has mapped Your Tribe's expansion across the area and examined the data behind some of the firm's claims.

Your Tribe's is part of Aitch Group which evicted around 150 private rental tenants from Vive Living at Childers Street in December 2024. The scheme is now being marketed as Your Tribe Deptford - The Luxe Collection.

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Sun Wharf planning meeting

After council officers had recommended approval, Phoebe Juggins, Senior planning manager for Aitch Group and Your Tribe, spoke as applicant.

She said the development would make “efficient use of a prominently located and underutilised brownfield site”.

She argued that fewer than 15% of students living in the borough are housed in PBSA and that therefore the application will be meeting an existing demand for PBSA.

She added: “If students in the area are forced into private rented accommodation then this has knock-on issues; available rental properties in Lewisham have declined by 35% in the last decade.”

Juggins said that construction of the student bedrooms “will free up the equivalent of around 242 homes in the area, using the GLA's multiplier, which will go directly towards improving Lewisham’s housing delivery metrics.”

Councils are allowed to count PBSA rooms towards their housing delivery targets using a ration of 2.5 : 1. The development's 605 student bedrooms would count as equivalent to 242 homes.

However, Caitlin Colquhoun, from Southwark Law Centre's Planning Voice project, has said the formula should only be used "for the purposes of housing delivery test and not for interpreting local policy".

She spoke at a previous Lewisham council strategic planning committee in November 2024, in opposition to another local Your Tribe PBSA development for a 31 storey tower at Scott House.

Juggins referenced the change in building regulations following the Grenfell disaster which require a second staircase in higher buildings, and would result in the loss of 42 dwellings from the previous consented scheme. 

She also pointed to the increase in construction costs and the increase in the cost of borrowing, arguing for the more profitable PBSA in place of homes.

Kent Wharf residents' objections

Two residents, both leaseholders in nearby Kent Wharf, raised objections at the meeting.

The first resident said approving the scheme would set “a deeply troubling precedent” reducing the amount of daylight and sunlight his home would receive.

He said "the amount of light we are going to lose is staggering .. 85% loss of daylight and 100% loss of sunlight”.

He pointed out that the worst impacts would fall on wheelchair adapted homes, and that disabled residents would be disproportionately affected.

Officers confirmed that about 44 homes would be moderately or substantially affected by reduction in daylight and sunlight.

The resident said: "The overconcentration of PBSA is astonishing.  Within around 1 mile, 4,747 student rooms are already in the pipeline." 

Countering Your Tribe's argument that the PBSA would be accessible to ordinary students, he added: "These are luxury units, and Your Tribe markets every one of its sites as luxury".

The other resident said: “If this development goes ahead .. I will essentially lose all natural daylight and the only way I would be able to see the sky is if I physically lean out of the window and look up – it’s like living in a shoebox ..

"Every decision made here affects current residents and affects the community."

'People don't see the value of PBSA'

Councillor Jack Lavery, chairing the meeting, referenced some of the objections received saying "people don’t see the value of PBSA to the same extent as C3 homes" and asking Your Tribe to support their claim that it frees up housing.

Juggins responded that London universities are reporting challenges and "PBSA takes some of the strain out of the market".  

Dissociating herself from Aitch Group's recent eviction of around 150 young renters at Childers Street, she said: "There are lots of young people who want to rent and can’t."

She repeatedly mentioned local provider Trinity Laban's support for new PBSA in this location.

However, Trinity Laban is a very small institution, HESA data shows that it had 1170 students last year and 420 of them were already in student accommodation or living at home.

PBSA does 'not address local housing need'

Local councillor Dawn Atkinson spoke on behalf of local residents objecting on grounds of loss of daylight and sunlight, but also of the unsuitability of developing more luxury student accommodation.

She said: “I am Vice-Chair of the Housing Select Committee so I am fully aware of the housing crisis .. however I do not feel building specific student accommodation would address the local housing need.

“What is needed very much in Deptford is family homes.  Student accommodation and student flats are not equal to family homes which is in dire need in Deptford.”

She also raised concerns about the harm to the Creek’s wildlife, in particular the loss of the Sand Martin and Kingfisher habitat in the river wall.

The artificial Sand Martin and Kingfisher bank was formed in the late 1990s to encourage wildlife and Creekside Discovery Centre described it as the "most significant creation/establishment of terrestrial (terrace) habitat adjacent to the Creek".

Your Tribe has agreed to provide an "appropriate replacement".

Overconcentration

Councillor Lavery pointed out that there had been "a lot of objections raising the issue of overconcentration .. there is a lot of PBSA cropping up across the borough and lots of recent applications for schemes."

Planning officers stated that there is no clear policy definition of what constitutes overconcentration.

They reported that assessment was undertaken by Your Tribe to determine the population of students within an area that Your Tribe defined - the Lower Super Output Area - of around 2,700 people.

In their conclusions, officers said the public benefits of the scheme outweigh the identified harms including the reductions in sunlight and daylight, and recommended that the plans be approved.

Councillors voted unanimously to grant planning permission.

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