Southwark Council has had its plans to compulsory purchase a housing estate blocked by the Secretary of State, but will challenge the decision in court.
Southwark Council writes:
Southwark Council will go to court to challenge a planning decision by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which could signal the end of regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate. However, it has first called on Sajid Javid, MP, to reconsider his decision because of an error in the report.
On Friday, the Secretary of State rejected the compulsory purchase of the eight remaining properties in the first development site on the Aylesbury estate, stating that the council has not done enough to acquire the land by agreement, and that the order would breach the human rights of the remaining leaseholders by forcing them to use their savings to buy a new property. But Mr Javid’s findings are based on a former leaseholder policy which the council updated in December 2015 and shared with the Secretary of State. But this new approach is not reflected in his decision.
Cllr Peter John, Leader of Southwark Council, said: ‘This decision puts Southwark and all councils who are trying to build new homes for our residents between a rock and hard place. We can either fight this decision or scrap our plans to regenerate the Aylesbury estate, leaving the hopes and dreams of thousands of local people in tatters. I’m not willing to do that, which is why we will take court action if necessary to try to overturn this bizarre decision. I honestly don’t know what the Government’s policy is on estate regeneration any more, as they say one thing and do another. By this decision they are jeopardising plans for 800 new homes for Londoners. Of course the human rights of our residents are important, which is why each of the remaining resident leaseholders has been offered a brand new home in the same area, rent-free, and with a shared equity arrangement which protects the money they’ve saved and invested. I’m afraid that we can’t just keep offering them more and more taxpayers’ money.
‘In his report the Secretary of State recognises that the scheme is viable, that it brings economic and social benefits to the area and that refurbishment is not an option. Our plans offer the only way forward for the positive regeneration of an area of London that desperately needs it, and I’m determined that we will keep going to provide high-quality, affordable homes for local people. I hope he will listen to reason but failing that, we will take this to court. We will also continue with our regeneration of other parts of the estate that are not affected by this decision.’
Aylesbury resident Jean Bartlett, said: ‘Lots of residents on Aylesbury are very disappointed with the outcome, but we are relieved and pleased to hear that the council and Notting Hill remain determined that the regeneration will be going ahead. There are people across the estate who are desperately waiting to move out and see things happen and we are happy that council is not giving up on the Aylesbury. There are still some exciting parts of the regeneration that are moving forward like the new library and community hub on Plot 18 and we are looking forward to them happening, but we need things to happen on the rest of the estate because there are still a lot of people living here who do want to see change.’
The regeneration of the Aylesbury estate will bring the following benefits for local people:
- 50 per cent affordable homes, with 75 per cent of those at social rents and the remainder as shared ownership or shared equity homes for leaseholders
- Mixed communities – between social rent, shared ownership and private sale
- Improving existing open space (invested £11m to improve Burgess Park for local residents, with a further £6m to be spent over the next three years, and improved grounds maintenance)
- Working with the Creation Trust to support the economic and social regeneration of the estate by helping residents into education, training and employment, as well as supporting a range of other projects and programmes Creation run including their resident involvement activities
View the Southwark Council press release
View the decision letter
View a London News Online article
View a Guardian article about the issues
