The development, which is for a third more homes than the government set out in the Communities Plan, will cost £16bn by 2016, according t0 the London Thames Gateway Development Investment Framework, a report launched last Friday.
Michael Owens, head of development policy at the London Development Agency, said the new investment model showed that estimated private sector contributions and government commitments fell £3bn short of this. The LDA compiled the report with the Greater London Authority and Thames Gateway London Partnership.
The area is a cornerstone of the government's plan to tackle rocketing demand for housing in the South-east. This is the first time its detailed infrastructure requirements have been outlined.
The report said the London Gateway's population would grow by three-quarters from 286,000 to 491,000 people by 2016 and that 180,000 jobs would be created via economic growth. To support this, it said the area would need:
- 19 primary care health centres
- 1000 new hospital beds
- 3800 new medical staff, including 200 GPs
- 55 primary schools
- 10 secondary schools
- 800 secondary school staff
- six new playing fields
- six police station
- three fire stations
- nine leisure centres
- up to 13 electricity substations.
Tony McBrearty, deputy chief executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership, denied the report was over-ambitious about the numbers the region could hold. "We looked at the government numbers and said, we can do better than that. The danger is you go for low density and you get urban sprawl that can't support the infrastructure you need to make the communities sustainable."
The document will be submitted to the upcoming three-year Treasury spending review as part of the ODPM's bid for money to fund the Thames Gateway.
But the LDA and the partnership both refused to say how much more the government would have to commit to make the 91,000-home target achievable.
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