A NEW PART OF LONDON AT MERIDIAN WATER

Meridian Water is a major £6bn, 20-year London regeneration programme led by Enfield Council, bringing 10,000 homes and thousands of jobs to Enfield, north London, next door to the beautiful Lee Valley Regional Park.

Alongside beautiful homes and world class public spaces and community facilities, the development will have its own brand new railway station, unlocking the area for commuters, with better connections south to Stratford and London Liverpool Street and north to Stansted and Cambridge.

The Council is taking control of the vision for Meridian Water and overseeing its delivery, which is based around three pillars:

1. Mixing uses and animating streets

2. Park life at your doorstep

3. Your place to make and create

The Council is speeding up the delivery of the first new homes and jobs at Meridian Water.

Phase One

Meridian One will see the first 725 homes and retail space built at Willoughby Lane. Enabling works are progressing, while the procurement process for a development partner is underway through the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) London Development Panel.

These homes will be delivered around the brand new Meridian Water station, which is due to open in summer 2019 and serve up to four million passengers each year at its peak.  

A planning application and development partner are also being progressed for Meridian Two at Leeside Road, which will deliver 200 affordable homes, earmarked for ‘makers and creators’ that will use new workspace on the lower floors. This will be complemented by a new employment hub for around 900 new jobs at a 2-3 acre site along the North Circular.

Meridian Water will create a truly mixed-use community for the capital – a place with character and edge, where beautiful homes and world class public spaces are enlivened by a rich mix of growing industries and surrounding communities.

It will also be a place where local residents and Londoners can afford to live in a beautiful new environment with fantastic connections. The 10,000 new mixed-tenure homes will support growth in Enfield and London and provide aspiration and opportunity for everyone, at all stages of life and across all income scales.

The Council’s aim is to create a true 24-hour neighbourhood – a new destination to enjoy nightlife, music, theatre, cinema and much more, all year round.

The area will be linked by a new boulevard, connecting the train station in the West to the Lee Valley Regional Park in the East, passing over the waterways and through a series of public spaces to create one cohesive neighbourhood.

Communities will have everything they need at Meridian Water. The first new school opened in January 2017, with further major investment into schools, health services, community facilities, parks, leisure and culture and transport infrastructure to come.

Meridian Water will create an economy for makers and creators, delivering new jobs and opportunities for local people on a scale which will transform the employment base of the Borough.

The transformation will represent a step-change away from industrial warehousing and logistics type uses, which are relatively plentiful in the Borough, offering higher skilled, higher paid employment opportunities for local people.

A new series of employment offers will be developed across the site, attracting major employers as well as start-ups, including new meanwhile uses, a new cluster for fashion manufacturing and the creation of workspaces for makers, creators and artists. 

Local social-enterprise Building Bloqs, alongside ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art) and UKFT (the UK Fashion & Textile Association) will form part of the new employment hub at Meridian Water, providing a boost and new jobs for the ‘maker’ economy.

The Council will also work with a number of operators to deliver temporary projects across the site, making efficient use of land, creating short to medium-term employment opportunities and bringing life and activity to the area early on in the programme.  This will include bringing the existing sheds back into use on the site by delivering high quality leisure, arts and culture facilities to support a 24-hour destination.

Throughout the life of the overall regeneration programme, an estimated 10,000 construction jobs will be created. A dedicated training offering to provide a programme of traineeships and apprenticeships and an active schools programme will also be delivered, helping local people gain the skills needed during construction and beyond as well as inspiring the next generation of employees,

As a development planned from scratch, super high-speed broadband will be delivered across the site matched by a pioneering approach to digital infrastructure to maximise the benefits of the sharing economy.

Meridian Water is being actively led by Enfield Council, showcasing the public sector at its pioneering best.

“Going forward we will be in control and we will be the custodians of the place Meridian Water will become; investing council money and resources to ensure that local people are the principal beneficiaries of the new homes and jobs that will be created.”

Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Leader of Enfield Council

The approach taken by Enfield Council is unprecedented. The Council is taking control of the vision for Meridian Water and overseeing its delivery, selecting development and other partners to bring forward specific parts of the regeneration, whether that is for housing delivery, new employment spaces or meanwhile uses. 

The Council is also investing money and resources to ensure that local people are the principle beneficiaries of the new homes and jobs that will be created.

As part of this approach, the Council has acquired 87 acres (35 hectares) of land at Meridian Water since April 2014. It currently owns 64% of all developable land within the red line boundary of the site and has to date committed £157m to land acquisition.

Three new development sites are being offered on the basis of a Development Agreement rather than the sale of land, allowing the Council to retain control to ensure the quality of design and build, accelerate delivery, as well as prioritise the sale of new homes to local people first.

As one of London’s biggest regeneration zones, Meridian Water is backed by the Mayor of London, Enfield Council and local residents themselves. It is a designated Opportunity Area and a Housing Zone, which means that it has the political will and support required to succeed.

Local communities have welcomed the opportunities which will be created at Meridian Water. The Council is committed to continued consultation and engagement throughout the life of the regeneration programme and maximising the benefits for those people who already live and work in the area.