Landsec has put its approved 1,700-home Lewisham Shopping Centre rebuild on hold. The centre stays open, and the council wants more social rent homes.
The £1.5 billion redevelopment of Lewisham Shopping Centre is on hold. Landsec, which owns the centre, has told the council it is “deprioritising” the scheme.
Lewisham Council announced the decision on Tuesday 20 October (council statement). The council says Landsec’s current redevelopment proposals are now on hold. It says the company puts the decision down to “current market and economic conditions”.
The shopping centre is not closing. Landsec has owned it for more than 20 years. According to the council, the company has “reaffirmed its commitment to operating and improving the centre” and to the community partnerships based there.
The social housing row behind it
The pause comes a year after the scheme was approved, and after months of pressure over how few of its homes would be for social rent.
Lewisham’s Strategic Planning Committee resolved to approve the plans on 16 October 2025 (council announcement). The council’s own summary at the time listed around 1,700 homes, including 630 student units and co-living flats. Around 344 were to be affordable, in a mix of social rent, London Living Rent and discounted key-worker homes.
The Green administration elected in May then made its position plain. In written answers to Full Council on 23 September, Cllr Daniel Dream said he did not consider the approved mix “sufficient on its own to meet the scale of genuinely affordable and social rent need in this borough” (public questions and answers, PDF).
The same answers set out the council’s main lever. Landsec needs Lewisham House, the empty office tower beside the centre, for the later phases. The council said it was in no land-assembly talks with Landsec. It added: “The Mayor has made clear that he will not use CPO powers unless he sees a significant increase in the level of social housing in the scheme.” We reported those answers when the petition against the scheme went to Full Council.
What the Mayor said
Mayor Liam Shrivastava said the level of social rent homes “needed to increase”. He went on:
“I recognise the strength of feeling of those concerned about the development. I also know there were many other residents and businesses who wanted to see it come forward. The fact is the conditions for such projects are simply not favourable right now.”
He blamed the wider market as much as the scheme. “The development environment is as tough as it has ever been,” he said. He called on the Government to reform how housing is delivered.
The Mayor said the council would keep working with Landsec on:
- lobbying for the Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham
- reopening the Model Market
- continued investment in the shopping centre so it stays attractive to retailers
He also pointed to the council’s £24 million programme of town centre improvements, which is already under way. It covers Lewisham Market, the redevelopment of Lewisham Library, and work to make the town centre “cleaner, safer and more attractive”.
Cllr Dream, cabinet member for inclusive regeneration, planning and housing delivery, called the decision “disappointing”. “Lewisham is a pro development borough,” he said. He said the council would look at “sharing risk” and “giving earlier certainty on planning” to get schemes built. “My door is open to any developer who wants to talk about what it would take to deliver in Lewisham.”
Landsec had not published its own statement on its website when this article went live. Its position here is as the council reported it.
The permission has not gone away
Planning permission for the scheme still exists. The decision notice for application DC/24/137871 was issued on 8 July 2026 (decision notice, PDF). Its conditions set the clock:
- Phase one, approved in detail, is 445 co-living units in a building of up to 23 storeys and 119 homes in a building of up to 15 storeys. Work on it must begin within four years of the grant, so by July 2030.
- The rest of the scheme was approved in outline only. Landsec has 15 years from the grant to apply for approval of the details of each later phase.
A pause therefore does not cancel the plans. It means nothing is being built for now, and nothing is due to be built until Landsec decides to restart.
What it means for you
- The shopping centre stays open as normal. Nothing in the council’s statement changes shops, opening hours or the market.
- No demolition is coming soon. With the scheme on hold, there is no start date for any phase.
- The permission can be revived. If Landsec or a buyer restarts the scheme, the later phases come back to the council as fresh applications on housing mix and tenure. Those will appear on the council’s register, and our Lewisham planning applications page explains how to comment.
- Lewisham House stays empty for now. The council says it will not use compulsory purchase without more social housing, and Landsec has stepped back.
- Town centre money still flows. The £24 million council programme, the library redevelopment and the Model Market reopening are separate from Landsec’s scheme.
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