Haringey Council has approved a contractor for 37 new social-rent homes on a cramped, disused site beside an active railway in Bounds Green, taking a long-delayed housing scheme into its construction phase.
The cabinet member for housing signed off the appointment on Monday 28 September. The development is planned for land behind Woodridings Court, where an unused former car park and concrete podium sit between the existing flats and the railway. The council expects practical completion in early spring 2028, with construction due to begin after site possession this autumn.
The company is identified in the public decision only as Contractor A. The agreed contract sum and detailed tender results remain in exempt papers, so the public record does not identify the builder or confirm the final price. A procurement notice published earlier this year listed an estimated value of £15 million excluding VAT; that estimate is not the contract award amount.
A difficult site, with homes around it
The project’s 37 homes will be for social rent and include one-, two- and three-bedroom flats. Three are designed to be wheelchair accessible. They will be built beside an occupied block containing 56 existing homes, rather than on an isolated development plot.
The land has been out of use for more than 30 years. Its narrow shape, position next to the live Network Rail line and close proximity to residents have limited the options for design and construction. The railway also brings noise and air-quality considerations, which the building design addresses with acoustic treatment.
To reduce the amount of building work on the confined site, the scheme is planned around volumetric construction. The three-dimensional modules will be made in factory conditions and brought to the site for installation. This can limit deliveries, storage, dust and noise around existing residents, but it does not remove the need for careful foundations, lifting operations and railway safety planning. Access and work sequencing will have to be managed alongside the occupied homes and operational rail line.
The new building is also intended to improve conditions for people already living at Woodridings Court. Plans include new lifts serving the existing block as well as the new homes, landscaped communal gardens, informal play space, secure cycle storage and improved refuse and recycling facilities. Improved access and natural surveillance are intended to make the space easier to use and less vulnerable to anti-social behaviour.
Procurement reset before the award
This appointment follows several years of planning and a failed first attempt to find a builder at a price the council could afford. The original design was approved for 33 homes in March 2023. A later planning change added secondary lobbies to evacuation lifts, as required by funding conditions, and increased the total to 37. The amendment was approved in November 2025.
The first construction tender received only one bid, which substantially exceeded the council’s available budget. Haringey returned to the market with a new competition in spring 2026. Two bids were received by the June deadline. The authority says its highest-ranked submission was selected after assessing price, quality and social value, rather than on price alone.
The public resolution marks the final member decision needed to proceed. The fixed-price contract covers the new-build work, mobilisation and enabling work, along with the contractor’s management costs and profit. It also provides for a 12-month defects period after practical completion. The contract’s commercial terms are not part of the public papers.
What happens next
Before the homes can rise above ground, the contractor must complete technical design, prepare the site and coordinate the construction programme with planning requirements and Network Rail. Haringey has discharged the relevant pre-commencement planning conditions, including requirements for site levels, construction environmental management and logistics.
Residents can expect a period of building activity close to their homes, even with much of the structure manufactured off site. The council’s stated aim is to reduce disruption through that approach while making better use of land that has stood unused for decades. The next test is delivery: completing the railway and resident interfaces safely, providing the promised improvements to the existing estate and bringing all 37 homes into use on the anticipated early-spring 2028 timetable.
