The mixed use scheme - called Nine Elms Parkside - would also provide space for new shops, businesses, postal services, cafés, restaurants, bars, and a variety of sports and leisure facilities.

The 13 acre site is currently occupied by the South London Mail Centre which is due to close as part of Royal Mail's ongoing restructuring programme.

As part of the scheme's Section 106 package the developer will pay approximately £50mn towards improving local transport and community infrastructure. The majority will go towards the planned Northern Line Extension which will create two new Tube stations in Nine Elms.

Other community benefits include the new primary school, up to 168 affordable rent homes, up to 112 intermediate housing units in the form of First Steps shared ownership for sale, £200,000 towards an extension of the Barclay Cycle Hire scheme to Nine Elms, £300,000 towards a local employment initiative and new car club parking spaces.

A sports hall and outdoor sports pitches would also be created which would be used by the new school and the wider community. There will also be 2,414 cycle parking spaces across the site.

The scheme's masterplan, by Allies & Morrison Architects, would create seven distinct plots with building ranging in height from 5 to 23 storeys.

The development is set around new public squares, courtyards, gardens and a new 3.3 acre public park which would run the full length of the site from east to west.

This new green space will form a key link in the Nine Elms Linear Park - a continuous green corridor that will run right the way through Nine Elms, from Battersea Power Station in the west to Vauxhall Cross in the east.

Nine Elms programme director Helen Fisher said: "More than 1,000 homes are now under construction in Nine Elms along with brand new offices, shops, a new riverside walk and acres of new park land. The scale of the transformation is truly remarkable and this latest planning approval adds further momentum to our regeneration programme.

"The proposal would see this vast site brought back into use after the mail centre closes and more than three acres of new park land created.

"It provides another £50mn towards the Northern Line Extension and brings the rebirth of this forgotten part of central London a significant step closer."

The Royal Mail site lies at the heart of the Nine Elms regeneration zone. Immediately to the east is Ballymore's Embassy Gardens　development which last month (Feb) achieved planning consent for a mixed use scheme including almost 2,000 new homes.

To the north is St James Homes' Riverlight development which is now under construction and to the south is New Covent Garden Market where a planning application has been submitted for another major regeneration project.

Across Nine Elms more than 1,000 new homes are currently being built and this latest approval brings the number of homes with planning consent to 9,340.

Proposals for a further 4,275 are in the pipeline which would bring the total number of new Nine Elms homes to 13,615.

Planning permission has also been granted for more than 400,000 square metres of new commercial and community space across Nine Elms. This includes a new shopping hub, office buildings, hotels, leisure centres, a primary school, galleries, GP practices and community buildings.

A further 90,000 square metres of commercial space is currently working its way through the planning pipeline.