What happened

Wates has secured full planning consent from Harrow council for Poets Corner, the first and largest phase of its £360m regeneration of the borough's former civic centre site, Building and Construction Enquirer reported this week. Detailed permission covers 530 homes across three blocks rising to 12 storeys, a mix of 422 build to rent apartments and 108 London Living Rent homes, with outline approval already in place for a further 528 homes in later phases reaching 15 storeys. The six storey Harrow Civic Centre, vacated by the council in 2023, will be demolished to make way for it.

The Section 106 agreement tied to the consent locks in at least 192 affordable homes alongside 35 apprenticeships, 63 work experience placements and 210 local labour roles, plus two new public spaces and more than 4,000 sq m of children's play space.

Why it matters

Poets Corner is the largest single piece of Wates' wider £690m regeneration partnership with Harrow council, which is ultimately expected to deliver around 1,500 homes across the borough. Full planning consent, rather than a resolution to grant, means Wates can move from pre-construction into mobilisation without the usual risk of conditions unravelling the scheme later. That matters because London housing starts remain well below pre-pandemic levels and a lot of schemes are stalling at the planning stage rather than clearing it. A consented, funded, 1,000-plus home pipeline on one site, running through demolition, enabling works and multiple residential phases, is now a rarer thing in the capital than it used to be.

The build to rent structure is also worth noting. Single-ownership blocks let through in one tranche like this give a contractor a steadier, longer programme of work than a typical for-sale scheme sold off in phases to different buyers, which tends to mean steadier staffing too.

What it means for careers

Wates will need to resource Poets Corner from the ground up over the coming months. Expect live recruitment for site managers and assistant site managers to run the demolition and enabling package, quantity surveyors to manage the Section 106 cost reporting and the build to rent cost plan, and a design team to carry the outline-approved later phases through detailed design and into a reserved matters submission.

The local labour and apprenticeship commitments mean the hiring will not stop at head office level either. Trade supervisors and labour coordinators able to demonstrate delivery against borough employment targets will be in demand, as will residential project managers comfortable reporting to both a developer client and a local authority partner at the same time, a skill set that differs from a straightforward private residential job.

For QSs and project managers working the London residential market, build to rent schemes like this one are becoming a more reliable source of multi-year work than speculative for-sale housing. A project of this scale, with a near decade-long programme ahead of it and a delivery team still being assembled, is worth getting your CV in front of now rather than once the site hoarding is already up and the key roles are filled.