Hardess Yard, Brixton
Coordinating a £9.2million housing contribution while protecting the scheme's deliverability
Planning obligations can have a decisive effect on whether a complex development is both policy-compliant and deliverable. At Hardess Yard in Brixton, this required the affordable-housing contribution, viability review mechanisms and detailed Section 106 provisions to be resolved as part of a coordinated planning strategy.
The proposals comprise 320 co-living homes and 1,421 sq m of light-industrial space within buildings of up to 14 storeys. The co-living model meant that the development needed to make an appropriate contribution towards conventional C3 housing, supported by a co-living management plan and mechanisms for reviewing viability as the project progressed.
The challenge was not confined to agreeing the amount of the housing contribution. The timing and operation of the early and late-stage viability reviews, the interaction between the different obligations and the detailed legal drafting all had implications for the scheme’s financial exposure, programme and deliverability.
Acting as planning agent, Maddox Planning coordinated the revised affordable-housing and planning-obligations package. We managed the progression of successive Section 106 drafts, assembled relevant precedent concerning late-stage viability reviews and coordinated engagement with Lambeth Council and the Greater London Authority. This brought together the planning, viability, legal, design and technical workstreams around a coherent route towards permission.
The technical affordable-housing and viability evidence was prepared by ENCS, while the legal advisers developed and negotiated the detailed agreement and subsequent deed of variation. Our role was to maintain the overall planning strategy, coordinate the different advisers and ensure that the emerging provisions could be understood in the context of the development as a whole.
Lambeth resolved to grant planning permission, and the Mayor of London confirmed that the Council could determine the application without intervention. The completed Section 106 agreement, dated 1 July 2026, secured a £9.2 million contribution towards conventional C3 housing, together with the co-living management plan and early and late-stage viability reviews.
Maddox Planning’s involvement continued after completion of the principal agreement. We coordinated the subsequent deed of variation, non-material amendment, planning conditions and other delivery-stage matters. The project illustrates why effective planning leadership does not end with a committee resolution: complex obligations must also be translated into workable legal provisions and managed carefully as a development moves towards implementation.