Boris to announce Old Oak MDC

As the HS2 hybrid bill confirms a station at Old Oak is in the plan for the high speed line, Boris Johnson is set to announce a Mayoral Development Corporation for the regeneration of the surrounding area.

The bill paving the way for a £50billion high speed rail line to be built confirms Old Oak Common, just north of Wormwood Scrubs, as a principal hub station.

The high speed hub will connect the HS2 line to Crossrail and the Great Western Main line and provide opportunities for substantial regeneration of the nearby area, according to Hammersmith & Fulham Council. They say up to 19,000 new homes could be built and 90,000 jobs created.

HS2 is set to make Old Oak Common Britain’s best connected railway station as it acts as the main interchange between HS2 and Crossrail. The Government has signalled Old Oak’s vital role in taking pressure off busy central London terminals like Euston, the London terminus of HS2, which could not have coped with the 13,000 extra passengers an hour that HS2 will bring.

Around half of working age adults within 1.2miles of the proposed station are unemployed. Some parts of the area – which includes a large amount of railway land with train depots, two waste recycling facilities, the Car Giant dealership and other light industrial uses – are in the bottom 1% most deprived nationally.

Given the regeneration potential HS2 provides, the Government, Mayor of London, TfL and London Boroughs of H&F, Brent and Ealing have developed a 30 year vision to transform the Old Oak area.

Now the Mayor of London is set to announce an Olympic-Park style Mayoral Development Commission to oversee bringing the vision to life, reports the Evening Standard. This would give the Mayor planning powers over the whole area, which straddles three boroughs – Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Ealing, and includes much of Park Royal.

Cllr Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council Leader, says: “HS2 has the potential to act as a catalyst to create much-needed new homes, jobs and opportunities in one of London’s poorest areas. We have heard a lot about how HS2 will bridge the north-south divide and regenerate parts of northern England and the Midlands but it has also the potential to transform rundown inner London neighbourhoods right on our doorstep.”