What is happening with the development of the old police station in Chiswick?

The former Chiswick Police Station, vacated by the police in 2021

No sign of spades in the ground

Many people in Chiswick are wondering what is happening with the development of the old police station in the centre of the High Road.

Birchgrove, the developer, told local residents in January they expected work to start at the end of May. Since then, there has been no sign of anything happening at the site.

Ben Gibbons, land and planning surveyor with Birchgrove, told The Chiswick Calendar the project was still moving forward, but “the whole landscape has changed in the past two years”, and they had been hit with building cost inflation as high as 25 %.

London is the most expensive city in the world in which to build, according to the Arcadis 2024 International Construction Costs (ICC) report, a study of comparative construction costs across 100 global cities, and the cost of building keeps going up.

Building costs are set to increase by a predicted 14% over the next five years, while tender prices will rise by 15% over the same period, according to the latest construction forecast data from the Building Cost Information Service.

Local councils are also finding it difficult to make progress with their promises on delivering affordable housing because of the extreme inflation in building costs.

READ ALSO: Just one ‘affordable home’ started in Hounslow since April, and one in Ealing, new figures show

‘Guardians’ occupy the site for a cheap rent while Birchgrove make their preparations

“We are not mothballing it”

Developments such as the Old Police Station provide an important injection of cash to local authorities for their own housebuilding projects, and stalled developments add to the rundown appearance of the city.

“We are not mothballing it”, Ben told us. “We are working hard behind the scenes to move it forward”, but he was not prepared to give us an estimate of when work on the new building might start, or even when the existing building is likely to be demolished.

The project had, he said, experienced “unforeseen delays due to the complexities of the planning process and agreeing a deliverable section 106 agreement with the council”.

Birchgrove, who specialise in residential apartments for older people, bought the site to create apartments available to rent, and their plans were approved by Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee in February last year. The building has been empty except for a few ‘guardians’ paying a token rent since the last police officers moved out in October 2021.

READ ALSO: Old police station development in Chiswick approved by Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee

READ ALSO: Timetable announced for building work on the old Police Station site in Chiswick

Since planning approval went through the company has been locked in negotiation with Hounslow Council over how much they will pay into the borough’s coffers.

Computer generated image of the planned Birchgrove development from the west

Birchgrove argued they needed to make more profit from the development

Developers pay a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) of a set amount per square metre, payable to the Mayor of London. The money is used to fund a wide range of infrastructure, including parks, schools, community facilities, health facilities and leisure centres.

They also pay ‘Section 106’ money, based on how much profit the developer expects to make, which includes an amount that goes towards the cost of affordable housing in the borough, in Birchgrove’s case, £400,000.

Birchgrove has argued that instead of a profit margin of 12 and a half percent, they ought to be allowed 15%, as theirs is an innovative scheme, the profits from which are as yet unproven, and unless 15% was agreed, they would not be able to borrow the money to proceed.

The negotiations have taken a year and were finally concluded in June, with Birchgrove winning the argument.

The money is payable once construction has started and the agreement is reviewed a few years later, once the company knows what its actual profit is. The length of the negotiations with Hounslow has added to their costs, Ben told us.

The old police station as it looks now

“Many hurdles” still to jump, but the building will be one of the company’s “flagship” schemes

They now have the funding in place, but he said they still have “many hurdles” to jump before we see the promised development. Nonetheless Birchgrove stress they are in it for the long haul.

“Birchgrove is a developer-operator, we are not a developer who builds, sells, and moves on. This will be one of our flagship schemes and we are looking forward to having it up and open, and excited to be part of the community in Chiswick”.

Meanwhile the building is occupied by ‘guardians’, who are keeping it in use, and whose pot plants on the windowsills are flourishing.