A new artist’s impression of what the development at 100 Avenue Road could look like

A DEVELOPER says it is ready to revive a mothballed tower block project if it is allowed to add more than 50 homes to the scheme.

Regal, with offices in South Hampstead, this week submitted an application to amend the approved planning permission for the 100 Avenue Road site in Swiss Cottage.

The redrawn plans squeeze two more floors into to the 24-storey tower but would remain the same height through what has been described as “floor-to-floor” efficiencies – reducing ceiling height and the thickness of structural “slabs”.

The new plans would see 237 homes built on the site – up from 184.

Seventy of them are classed as “affordable” and will be run by a social housing provider.

Unlike the last plan, all the private homes will be for sale, a potential £100million cash bonanza.

The stalemate on the site – the hole in the ground where the old Ham & High newspaper offices were bulldozed – has centred on developer claims that previously approved plans are now financially unviable.

Essential Living, the original firm, gave up on their scheme in an unresolved planning saga now more than a decade old.

It had used the planning appeal system to overcome Camden’s refusal to grant consent.

Residents groups had hoped a fresh developer would come to the table with a new scheme with greater community benefits.

The Avenue Road proposal also includes a new base for the Winch Youth Club split over ground and top floors with a roof terrace playground attached to the social housing side of the development.

The Winch’s chief executive Rashid Iqbal MBE told the New Journal: “In the previous designs we had one stack of the development that was facing the library that was all ours, from ground floor to top.

“The new proposal is on the ground floor, but then the rest is on the fifth, six and seventh floors. There will be housing in between those floors.

“We are going to have to compromise and we are trying to work out if we can make it safe.

“I’m not focused on litigating the past, my focus is on making sure there is a community benefit for generations to come.”

Elaine Chambers, who lives nearby and has campaigned against the tower for more than 10 years, said: “There are now further concerns we have with regard to the change Regal has made from ‘rented’ to ‘for sale’ in the main tower block.

“This is most likely going to attract overseas interest leading to foreign investors. It seems inevitable that whole floors will be bought up and then rented out at exorbitant prices by such investors.

“This business practice is not conducive to the betterment of local communities and their need for housing.”

She added that the Winch did “great work with youths” and should have had a new venue provided by the council decades ago, but added: “While Camden happily wriggled out of its financial commitment to its youth, it is my opinion that The Winch is taking up far too much space which could be housing.”

Regal said this week it can make the scheme work by making all the private homes for sale rather than rent and by boosting the numbers of units through structural “efficiencies”.

The new scheme looks significantly different with a brickwork exterior and a large supermarket-size retail space with a front entrance in Avenue Road.

The developer said the project – depending on the council’s considera­tion of the designs and barring the need for more planning appeals and high court actions – could be completed by 2028. Steve Harrington, planning director at Regal, said: “We are ensuring this site delivers on its full potential – providing high-quality homes and community benefits.

“We have built a strong working relationship with The Winch.”

He added that the majority of overseas buyers purchase homes for family use that then rented out “locals”.