Crossrail and HS2 superhub will bring £6bn boost to north-west London

New station linking Crossrail and HS2 will turn wasteland into 'mini-Manhattan'
A CG image showing the Crossrail line, and the new station, with the HS2 line behind a row of skyscrapers
26 November 2013

Boris Johnson is to set up an Olympic-style regeneration agency to transform a rundown area into a thriving new district and deliver a £6 billion economic boost to London.

The Mayor wants to use Crossrail links and the planned HS2 route — which will converge at Old Oak Common — to spur the creation of 80,000 homes and 20,000 jobs.

By 2025 a “mini-Manhattan” of skyscrapers and apartments will shoot up around the station in north-west London. The Mayoral Development Corporation in Old Oak Common, known as MDC, will have the same powers that are being used to create a Games legacy in Stratford. It will begin planning work next year at the semi-industrial 195-acre site north of Wormwood Scrubs and Westway. The establishment of an MDC is subject to London Assembly approval.

Old Oak Common is set to become London’s rail “superhub” within a decade, serving 250,000 passengers or the equivalent of Waterloo station. Deputy mayor for planning Sir Edward Lister is masterminding the plan to use these enhanced rail links as a spur to regeneration such as that achieved around King’s Cross station.

The Mayor believes that HS2 bosses have failed to attract private investment, both at Old Oak Common and the high-speed line’s London terminus at Euston, and wants to lead the way.

Sir Edward told the Standard: “The big opportunity from HS2 is regeneration, and this must not be missed. In London, Old Oak Common and Euston can be made into an entirely new city quarters delivering tens of thousands of homes and jobs for Londoners but only if we get the HS2 design and funding correct.”

The MDC will be charged with improving other transport links in the area which is poorly connected, building new roads and bridges.

The development will be funded through borrowing against enhanced land values which it is predicted will eventually be in line with Kensington & Chelsea. A levy will be charged on local businesses, creating a template for other schemes along HS2.

The MDC — the first such body since the Olympics — will also hand the Mayor planning powers over the entire Old Oak Common site which straddles the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Brent.

The Mayor has presented HS2 bosses with a list of transport demands to maximise the benefits of Old Oak Common. It wants ministers to fund a new Overground station; to create a £25 million link with the existing West Coast mainline and to fund new roads, pathways and cycle routes.

Isabel Dedring, deputy mayor for transport, said: “By stripping the cost out of HS2, we also risk stripping out the big increase in land values it can create, the very thing that can play a major role in funding the project.

“If we get this right, Old Oak Common could be the next King’s Cross-St Pancras of the west for London.”

A City Hall study into Old Oak Common has recommended: “A new metropolitan destination connected to existing public transport hubs and development opportunities and exploiting the assets of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs; overcoming severance and creating a coherent and legible street network; and optimising development, which may include some tall buildings, around the transport hubs.”

The full MDC plan will be announced next month at a summit of HS2 chiefs hosted by the Mayor at City Hall.

Yesterday MPs began the process of making the laws to enable work on the £50 billion HS2 scheme to begin with the publication of a 50,000 page bill. HS2 is planned to run between London and Birmingham by 2026 and on to Manchester and Leeds by 2033.

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