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| © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
Earl's Court 'regeneration'
On 16
February, the Royal Borough of
Kensington and Chelsea issues a ‘commitment to tenants and leaseholders’.
In a statement, the Council says: ‘Essentially, Kensington and Chelsea will only
redevelop a Council estate if it is possible to rehouse all existing tenants in
better homes in the new development or in the nearby area (unless, of course,
they choose to move elsewhere).’
Piloted
The statement continues: ‘In
addition the Council will try to offer all resident leaseholders on such an
estate access to a shared equity scheme of the kind being piloted at Pembroke
Road, to enable them to buy a home in a new development, even if it is worth
more than their original home.'
Depend
The Council says the principles are being applied to its planned redevelopment of its Pembroke Road offices.
The statement adds: ‘This offer will depend on the
viability of each regeneration project, but would also be in addition to all
statutory compensation and disturbance allowances.'
Opposed
'These new commitments mean that
existing communities would be kept together if and when regeneration projects
go ahead, rather than being displaced and dispersed as happened in some
historic examples.’
Tenants and residents have
strongly opposed the demolition and developer-led ‘regeneration’ of the West
Kensington and Gibbs Green council estates at Earl’s Court.
Aylesbury Estate occupation
Protestors
against Southwark Council’s demolition and Notting Hill Housing’s
‘regeneration’ of the Aylesbury Estate
in south London report that the Council has secured a legal order to end the
protestors’ occupation of the estate’s emptied Chartridge block.
Later,
at 5pm (17 February), protestors plan to picket local Labour MP Harriet Harman
at her regular constituency surgery at Walworth Methodist Church.
They want
Harman to oppose Southwark Council and Notting Hill Housing’s ‘regeneration’
plan to demolish and redevelop the 2,704-home estate.
Plan for '11,000 new council homes'
Meanwhile, the Council's New Southwark Plan, including the promise to 'build 11,000 new council homes over the next 30 years', comes under scrutiny at an Elephant Amenity Network meeting.
Housing department officers Alison Squires and Ebony Riddell-Bamber are due to
make presentations about the Council’s housing policies to the EAN, a group of tenants, residents and traders who campaign for ‘regeneration’ more directly beneficial to the existing local population.
The Elephant Amenity Network meeting starts at 6.30pm, Tuesday 17 February, at Crossway Church, 100 New Kent Road, Elephant and Castle SE1 6TU.
Segregation of council tenants from private residents
Members of the City of London Corporation say they will oppose
Berkeley Homes and Southwark Council’s plan to stop tenants of a new council
block from sharing the same garden as owners of adjacent £15 million
penthouses.
James Hatts, of the London SE1 community website, reports (13 February) that Southwark Council and Berkeley Homes seem to want to reverse plans, originally approved in 2011, to allow 43 Horace Jones House council
tenants to share access to courtyard podium gardens with purchasers of
luxury One Tower Bridge apartments.
This is the latest example of local London politicians believed to be siding with developers to segregate affluent private homebuyers from average and lower income council tenants.
© Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, February 2015
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