A revised application from Countryside Properties Plc and L&Q for the Beam Park development has been submitted following the original plan being rejected by Havering Council and subsequently this decision being called-in by the Mayor of London.

The initial plans were thrown out due to claims of overdevelopment, however there are suggestions that this was an electoral point scoring process as the conservative council were previously called out on their plans to build on over 120 hectares of green belt in the south of the borough.

Earlier this week as part of George Osborne's spending review, it was announced that nine new prisons would be built in England and Wales to replace the country's Victorian jails. The modernisation of the prison estate will save an estimated £80m a year in reduced costs claims the Shadow Chancellor.

The plan is to sell the sites in order to build thousands of much-needed new homes. It is predicted that more than 3,000 properties could be built on the city centre sites of the old prisons.