Fears have been raised that developments on public land owned by Transport for London will fail to deliver social housing for residents unable to afford sky-high private rents.

TfL is in the process of drawing up plans for new housing sites around stations across the capital to raise cash – including a 2,600 square metre development built over a completely refurbished Old Street station, the Tribune can reveal.

Work on closing the north-western arm of the roundabout is due to start within weeks, paving the way for new housing that could raise “significant additional resources to fund public transport improvements”, according to TfL’s paperwork. Two other TfL-owned sites in Holloway and Archway have been sold to private developers for private rented and student accommodation, and the transport authority plans to convert offices above Covent Garden station and a building in Charing Cross Road into luxury flats.

Glyn Robbins, a council estate manager at Quaker Court, off Old Street, said: “Unfortunately, some public organisations are increasingly behaving like private property developers. If this is going to be another luxury development, TfL should go and explain this to the 18,000 households on Islington Council’s waiting list.”

Mr Robbins, a member of the Unite trade union housing worker network, added: “No one who lives or works around here is under any doubt that the area is changing into a rich person’s playground under the ridiculous banner of Silicon Roundabout.”

The plans for Old Street form part of TfL’s property development programme, which it hopes will raise £3.4billion by 2025.

TfL owns the freehold to Archway Tower, a former office block, which developer Essential Living is converting into 118 private rented flats.

It also owns the freehold to part of a site adjacent to Holloway Road station, the leasehold of which has been sold to London Metropolitan University, which plans to build a 212-room block of student flats.

Speaking to the Tribune’s sister paper, the Camden New Journal, Labour mayoral hopeful Sadiq Khan said this week that these sites should have been used to develop “genuinely affordable homes”.

“It’s basically a fire sale,” he said. “Under the political leadership of Boris Johnson TfL try and sell off this land, and luxury flats are built.”

In 2014, Mr Johnson intervened to approve the development of 681 flats on the Royal Mail-owned Mount Pleasant site. Islington Council believed at least 42 per cent affordable housing would be possible, but the mayor approved a scheme with 24 per cent.

Islington housing chief Councillor James Murray said: “When TfL are developing homes on public land, although they need to raise money for the transport system, they need to develop genuinely affordable housing too.

“Selling a site off to a developer might land them a lump sum, but they might lose out on a revenue stream in the longer term.”

A TfL spokeswoman said it was too early to say how many homes the Old Street development would include, let alone the number of affordable homes.

Graeme Craig, director of commercial development at TfL, added: “It is right that we explore every opportunity to maximise the use of our land.

“This next phase of the development will see us working with our partners to turn those plans into reality.”

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Mr Johnson is “firmly on-track to deliver 100,000 affordable homes over his two terms, with almost 97,000 already completed”.

• Keywords
  SOCIAL HOUSING, UNDERGROUND STATIONS
• Geographical keyword
  OLD STREET, CITY ROAD
• Persons keyword
  Transport for London, Old Street Station [Underground]