Council agrees to scrap affordable housing obligations and 拢16m in regeneration payments as part of club鈥檚 new stadium deal

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club will no longer have to contribute 拢16m towards the regeneration of its local community and will not have to provide any affordable housing as part of its new stadium development, under a deal backed by Haringey council last night.

Haringey council鈥檚 planning committee last night voted unanimously to back a series of changes to the football club鈥檚 existing Section 106 agreement, which were aimed at boosting the financial viability of the football club鈥檚 拢400m stadium development plans, known as the Northumberland Development Project (NDP).

under the changes Tottenham is relieved of a requirement to designate 50% of the homes built as part of its stadium development as affordable and will now be allowed to designate any residential development for the open market.

Tottenham will also be allowed to extend the total number of homes in the southern part of the scheme from 200, as set out in the initial plans, to 285.

The council report said that requiring Tottenham to provide affordable housing in the development would result in a 鈥渓ower development value than if all the homes were open market鈥 and therefore would impact on the financial viability of the scheme.

鈥淲hile there is clearly a major need for new affordable homes in the borough, if the NDP scheme as a whole is not viable no new homes will be built,鈥 the report said.

The council also backed a proposal to delete around 拢16m worth of contributions from Tottenham to the borough, set out in the original Section 106 agreement, for wider regeneration, public realm, education and economic development improvements to the area.

Under the changes, Tottenham will now only need to provide 拢470,000 - rather than 拢16.436m - that would go towards parking and environmental improvements.

The changes to the Section 106 agreement follow a deal, announced last month, between the mayor of London, Haringey council, and the football club that saw the council agree to contribute 拢9m towards improvements to the public realm alongside 拢18m from the mayor of London towards the wider regeneration of the area.

Daniel Levy, Tottenham Hotspur chairman, said he was delighted with the council鈥檚 unanimous decisions and was 鈥済rateful for the support of the council and those right across the community who have who expressed such enthusiasm for our plans鈥.

鈥淲e welcome the public sector coming together to further regeneration in an area with such a real need. We are proud of our roots in Tottenham and we are committed to seeking to deliver a world class new stadium, 鈥 he said.

The deal with the council and the mayor follows efforts by the club to secure legacy use of the Olympic stadium, which would have seen the club move out of Tottenham.

Cllr Alan Strickland, cabinet member for economic development, said: 鈥淔ollowing last summer鈥檚 riots, the need to transform Tottenham for the benefit of everyone who lives, works and studies in the area is stronger than ever.

鈥淚鈥檓 delighted that the planning committee unanimously backed this exciting scheme which will be pivotal to our aims of building back better for Tottenham.鈥