Housing secretary Angela Rayner has rejected the 3,500-home Northfleet Harbourside scheme in Kent as concerns such as fears of lead poisoning from a neighbouring refinery “significantly and demonstrably” outweighed the benefits.
The masterplan from the Northfleet Harbourside Development Company (NHDC) included an 8,000-seat multi-capacity football stadium for Ebbsfleet United, plus office, retail and healthcare spaces, a 300-bed hotel and associated business and leisure facilities.
Raynor agreed with the planning inspector’s recommendation that the scheme be refused and said the “chronic exposure to toxic lead” from the nearby Britannia Refined Metals (BRM) plant “is likely to lead to significant health risks, especially for children, pregnant women, and the elderly”.
She added that the scheme would put the area’s open spaces and allotments at “unacceptable risk from unacceptable levels of air and soil pollution” with no “credible plan to improve air quality or provide mitigation”.
Rayner also cited the stadium’s potential impact on employment, claiming it could result in the loss of 650 existing jobs, some of which are “highly specialised”. The rejection letter said the new stadium project required the “complete loss of a safeguarded minerals wharf” and the “dismemberment of a thriving industrial estate; without any replacement provision being demonstrated”.
The notice added: “It has not been demonstrated that by granting planning permission, the benefits of the proposed development will be realised. There is no certainty that any housing will be delivered in a timescale that would mean the proposed development was contributing to the council’s five-year housing land supply, particularly given the need to compulsorily acquire significant amounts of land.”
While Gravesham Borough Council approved the plans in May 2024, the housing secretary called-in the decision and handed it to the planning inspectorate in February 2025 over lead poisoning concerns.
NHDC and Ebbsfleet United have been contacted for comment.
Rayner’s decision comes just days after she granted permission for the £500m redevelopment of the former Truman Brewery site in Tower Hamlets, east London, into a mixed-use scheme with a data centre, following an appeal.
Developer Grow Places submitted the plans to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in September 2024 for the creation of 377,000 sq ft of floorspace across a collection of eight new and some retained buildings.
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