Candys build social homes two miles away

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One Hyde Park will replace an ugly office block in Knightsbridge with 80 flats, each expected to sell for at least £20million.

The other 70 "affordable" flats, to be built in Regency Street, off Vauxhall Bridge Road, will be so small by comparison that they will make up just 11.8 per cent of the total floor space.

But the development will still officially have almost 47 per cent of social housing because under planning rules, the affordable housing is calculated according to the number of units rather than floor space.

Furthermore, the developers threatened to scrap their plans if the affordable homes had to be built alongside.

Labour peer Lord Campbell-Savours, who obtained correspondence sent to Westminster council, has accused designers the Candy brothers, working with Guernsey developer Project Grande, of seeking to "bully" the borough into minimising the amount of social housing.

He said: "Candy & Candy set out to prove that if they had the affordable development in Knightsbridge it would so undermine the retail value of their flats it would be more feasible for them to do commercial development. They were able to bamboozle the council into giving them permission to build off-site."

A Westminster council spokesman said: "Rather than offer a payment to allow the council to fund affordable housing elsewhere in the borough, the developer proposed building affordable housing on another site. This resulted in substantially more affordable flats."

Candy and Candy would not comment.