Spurs legal challenge against High Road West scheme fails

Council contractors set to begin work on major Tottenham redevelopment scheme that’s been years in the planning, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

CGI image of the High Road West redevelopment

Work is set to begin on a controversial Tottenham regeneration scheme after a legal challenge to the plans suffered a setback.

Haringey Council has announced that the construction of the first homes for the High Road West development – the largest regeneration project in the borough’s history – will shortly get underway.

Plans to knock down existing homes and businesses and build up to 2,929 homes in blocks up to 29 storeys on sites to the west of Tottenham High Road were approved by the council’s planning subcommittee in July last year. The 297-home Love Lane Estate and Peacock Industrial Estate to the north of White Hart Lane are among those earmarked for demolition.

The decision came despite significant opposition from local residents’ groups and businesses facing demolition – although 55% of Love Lane Estate residents taking part in a 2021 ballot backed the redevelopment scheme.

In November last year, senior councillors agreed to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire a swathe of homes and businesses, without the consent of their owners, in order to enable the scheme to go ahead.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, whose stadium sits opposite the approved scheme, subsequently mounted a legal challenge to the decision to grant planning permission, but the High Court has now decided there is no case for a judicial review. It is understood the football club has the right to appeal the court’s decision.

The local authority announced last week that work would begin on the first 61 council homes in an area west of the railway line, provisionally called ‘Whitehall Mews’. The civic centre secured £90million in grant funding from the Greater London Authority to provide 500 council homes on the regeneration site, which it says will enable it to offer a new home to residents of the Love Lane Estate.

Further benefits of the scheme touted by the council include parks, commercial space, a new library and a learning centre.

Council leader Peray Ahmet said the decision to start work on the homes was a “major milestone” and “the start of a bright and exciting future for the community in Tottenham”.

She added: “I welcome the decision of the High Court which is an endorsement that the council’s planning authority acted lawfully in the granting of planning permission for the scheme.

“As we take the next steps in the process, we will continue to listen to the views of residents and work together to shape the scheme’s design, the layout of the new homes and the community improvements.”

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