Our Vision and Proposals
OUR Proposals
A GREEN HEART FOR NORTH ACTON
● The site at present is inaccessible to the public, surrounded by busy roads, and provides a poor experience for passers-by. We want to change this, by creating new public areas and green open space.
● With the arrival of the Elizabeth Line and improvements to North Acton station, the area needs a central public space to bring the community together. A ‘green heart’ at One Portal Way will provide this.
● We are proposing a new landscaped square at the centre of our site. This green heart will be a garden with large trees, flowerbeds and lawns, and cater to a range of needs and activities.
● The green heart will also serve as a civic area, providing a space for the community to come together, as well as establishing clear routes to local transport hubs for visitors to the area.
● Feedback from our first phase of consultation showed that over 85% of people who answered our digital survey supported the creation and provision of this central space.
Bringing new jobs, workspace and innovation
● The scheme will help support West London’s booming tech and innovation cluster, taking advantage of the Elizabeth Line to provide a mix of co-working, maker, and flexible workspace.
● The proposed workspaces will be delivered across a number of buildings on site and could support between 1,200 and 2,000 new jobs locally.
● Last year, Imperial College was named the UK’s most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry.
● As a committed long-term local stakeholder, Imperial College London will look to leverage its local business network to attract and nurture creative and booming businesses locally.
● As such, a great emphasis is placed on providing affordable flexible employment space for start-ups and SMEs, alongside the provision of an Imperial-backed co-working space, responding to the fast evolving working environment. This will be brought forward in phase one of the scheme, utilising Imperial’s experience of delivering and operating similar spaces in West London.
● Dixons Carphone, the site’s current occupier, is in discussions with Imperial about relocating their headquarters to a more modern, sustainable facility off-site that would better reflect their needs as a leading tech company.
A mix of uses
● Feedback from our first phase of public consultation revealed that local people would like a greater mix of shops, markets and restaurants to choose from.
● We are therefore aiming to provide a wide range of uses and facilities at One Portal Way. This could include new shops and a supermarket, food market, pop-up exhibitions, community events, cafes, restaurants, a doctors’ clinic, leisure, and childrens’ play space.
New homes for Acton
● Our proposal will provide a total of between 1,300 to 1,600 new homes, much needed in the Borough and London in general.
● We will aim to deliver 35% of the homes as affordable, delivering a mix of London Living Rent, London Affordable Rent, Discounted Market Rent and Intermediate housing.
● In the first phase, the homes will be Build to Rent (BTR), meaning they will be for rental only, not for sale. This will help meet the demand for high-quality rental homes across London, including at affordable rents. Later phases will combine homes for-sale and for-rent.
● In addition, the proposal includes around 350 generous co-living studios, providing a different tenure option for residents who want to live more communally.
● We are also considering providing senior housing in one building. This would provide suitable homes for people over 65, who would like to live in London in a community designed for their needs.
Illustrative view LOOKING SOUTH DOWN PORTAL WAY, ACROSS THE A4000
HEIGHT AND MASSING
● Our proposals are designed to carefully respond to North Acton’s evolving context. We are therefore proposing tall buildings that will not be taller than other approved developments in the area, which currently reach 55 storeys.
● Our proposals for the buildings on site will help us deliver the new homes that Ealing needs, and are in keeping with the development context of North Acton.
● Our massing approach has been closely considered in order to minimise the visual impact on the surrounding area, and the three tall buildings are placed at the corners of the site, where their impact on neighbouring homes will be the smallest.
Sustainability
● An important part of creating a new green heart for North Acton is ensuring that One Portal Way has high ambitions for sustainability.
● We will achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating for all non-residential buildings.
● The latest technologies and measures will be used to reduce carbon emissions and save energy, including solar panels, an electricity-only energy supply, air-source heat pumps, and water-saving features.
● Sustainability is also informing our strategy for material selection, and our proposals will:
o Use recycled materials and ensure they are, in turn, recyclable
o Use local materials to reduce transportation needs
o Select durable and resilient materials
● Health and wellbeing are at the heart of our designs and we will strive to meet or surpass industry standards with regards to sustainability and clean energy.
