A total of 1,600 homes will be built in the next stage of a major development near Northwick Park Hospital.

Brent Council’s planning committee yesterday (Monday, March 29) unanimously granted outline permission to the scheme, which also seeks to provide new accommodation, teaching and leisure facilities for students.

Outline planning permission means the further details will need to be brought back to the committee, but that councillors were in favour of the concept.

It follows two other approved projects at the site.

In December, the planning committee granted permission for 654 homes and in January the council’s cabinet agreed to release funding to support the construction of a new key access road.

This latest application, which is being managed jointly by Brent Council, Network Homes, the University of Westminster, and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, is set to provide 1,600 new homes, as well as the student facilities, commercial space, and a replacement nursery across 19 buildings at the site.

The application said 587 (38 per cent) of the homes would be deemed affordable, though almost half of these would be offered under shared ownership.

Furthermore, only 17 per cent of the homes would be family-sized, though council officers explained this was the maximum level possible that would still ensure the scheme remained viable with the amount of affordable housing proposed.

There were several objections from the public to the plans, though nobody made representations against them at the meeting.

Concerns had been expressed around the loss of existing housing, green space, and biodiversity, as well as the scale of the development and the impact it would have on traffic and parking in the region.

However, officers argued there would be a “very limited amount of harm” to the nearby area, while the development would be “appropriate within the surrounding context” and would have an “acceptable” impact on traffic and parking levels.