Work has started on the empty Harrison Gibson store on Ilford High Road: 326 homes, every one for social rent, after two earlier schemes for the site stalled.

Work has started on the former Harrison Gibson department store on Ilford High Road. The empty 10-storey block is being replaced with 326 homes, and every one of them will be for social rent.

Redbridge Council announced the start on 24 September. The developer, MP Living, published the same announcement on its project site, dated 23 September.

This is the third plan for the site to get permission, and the first to reach the point where demolition has begun.

What has been agreed

According to the council and MP Living:

  • MP Living, the social housing provider set up by the investor Meadow Partners, is building the scheme and will own and manage the homes once finished.
  • The Greater London Authority is funding it with grant paid in four tranches. The first was released in September, and that is what allowed demolition and construction to start.
  • Redbridge Council will hold nomination rights. That means the council puts forward tenants for the homes, rather than the landlord choosing freely.
  • Redbridge’s Planning Committee approved the plans unanimously in May 2025.

Neither announcement gives the size of the grant or a date for the first homes to be finished. We have not found either figure in any published record.

Why it took ten years

The building went up in 1959 and 1960 as a purpose-built furniture store, 10 storeys high. It sits on the High Road between what the Greater London Authority’s 2020 planning report describes as Argos and Greggs, with Havelock Street behind it and the railway to the north.

Meadow Partners’ own consultation boards, shown at Redbridge Central Library in February 2025, set out the history. The site has been earmarked in the Redbridge Local Plan since 2015 and empty since then.

  • 2019: permission for 290 homes, shops and offices.
  • 2021 and 2023: the scheme was amended to 330 homes.
  • Then: in the boards’ words, the project “became no longer economically viable, and the previous owners abandoned the project”.

The boards also show how the affordable share changed each time.

Bar chart of the share of homes that are affordable in each version of the Harrison Gibson plan: 14 per cent in the 2019 permission for 290 homes, 31 per cent in the 2021 and 2023 amendments for 330 homes, and 100 per cent in the 2025 approval for 326 homes, all social rent.
Chart by Ilford Today. Source: Meadow Partners consultation boards, February 2025, and Redbridge Council, 24 September 2026.
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In 2019, 14 per cent of the homes were affordable, all at discounted market rent. The 2021 and 2023 versions raised that to 31 per cent, split between discounted market rent and London Living Rent. The scheme now under way is 100 per cent social rent, the tenure normally charged at the lowest rents.

What is being built

The consultation boards set out the homes in the new scheme:

Size Homes Share
One bedroom 126 38%
Two bedrooms 182 56%
Three bedrooms 18 6%
Total 326

There are no studios, where the earlier versions had between 31 and 58 of them. The 2021 and 2023 plans had no three-bedroom homes at all. The 2019 plan had 30.

The boards also describe a residents’ community hub with indoor soft play, a small gym, studios and games tables. There are play terraces on the first and second floors and an observatory on level 30. The design and height are largely the same as the 2023 permission.

Why this one matters for Ilford

The draft Ilford town centre plan, which we reported last week, says only 784 homes have been delivered in the town centre since 2018. It also says half of the schemes over six storeys there are stalled and none has been completed.

Harrison Gibson was one of those stalled tall schemes. A start on site does not mean homes are finished, and the GLA grant comes in stages. But it moves one of the most prominent empty buildings on the High Road from permission into construction.

What it means for you

  • If you are on Redbridge’s housing register, these homes will eventually be let through council nominations. You can apply to join the register on the council’s website. No lettings date has been announced.
  • If you use the east end of the High Road, expect demolition work at the site between Argos and Greggs. Neither announcement gives working hours or any footway closures. We will add them to our roadworks and travel page if they appear on the council’s register.
  • If you want to follow the wider picture, the town centre plan is out for comment until 30 October. Our Ilford planning news page tracks the other big schemes.

Sources