The £4.5 billion Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration project will still go ahead despite the site owner announcing a change in its business strategy.

Hammerson, which owns the 151-acre site near the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, recently declared it would be focusing on its retail investments as part of a wider strategy shift.

Some community groups feel the huge number of offices and houses due to be built there represent an overdevelopment of the site and some had hoped the announcement would mean a re-think of the plans.

But Hammerson has since confirmed it has no plans to walk away from the 20-year project that will create an estimated 27,000 new jobs and 7,500 new homes.

In a statement, Lawrence Hutchings, managing director of UK Retail at Hammerson, said: “At our recent annual results at the end of February, we announced that our prime focus will be as a specialist retail company.

"The sale of offices within our London portfolio relates specifically to our office schemes that have already been developed and has no impact on planned developments such as Brent Cross Cricklewood.”