THE winners of the contract to build the first of five new neighbourhoods in the Olympic Park have been announced.

Housing association London & Quadrant (L&Q) and construction company Taylor Wimpey are set to begin work on Chobham Manor in October, providing 870 homes to help tackle a lack of housing in east London.

The development situated between the athletes' village and Lee Valley VeloPark will include a health centre, nurseries and community spaces to support the homes, which will consist of traditional terraced and mews houses.

The first homes are expected to be ready by the end of 2014, while all five neighbourhoods should be completed over the next 20 years, providing a total of 6,500 homes, including those in Chobham Manor.

The neighbourhood will re-use heating, telecoms and broadband networks currently in use for London 2012 and 75 per cent of the housing will be family homes.

Daniel Moylan, chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation said: "We are delighted to have appointed Taylor Wimpey and L&Q as developers to build Chobham Manor. The calibre of bidders was very high and testament to the commercial pull of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"Chobham Manor will set the tone for the high quality neighbourhoods we want to create across the park with new schools, health centres and community spaces to support them."

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "The development of Chobham Manor is major milestone and will help ensure a thriving community on the park becomes a reality sooner rather than later."

L&Q is currently awaiting approval from Boris Johnson for a controversial 294-home housing development on Walthamstow Stadium.

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