Bailiffs will sound death knell for vast Heygate estate in London
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/04/bailiffs-death-knell-heygate-estate Version 0 of 1. At some point on Tuesday Adrian Glasspool, the last resident inside south London's huge and partly-demolished Heygate estate, is expecting bailiffs to knock on his door. Not only will this be a big moment for him, but it will also be a key point in one of the UK's most controversial regeneration schemes. Glasspool, a teacher, who remains inside his three-bedroom maisonette in Elephant and Castle amid a dispute about compensation, represents the last hurdle in a 15-year project which will see more than 1,200 primarily social-rented homes replaced with more than 2,300 flats and houses, the majority sold for prices currently reaching £380,000 for a one-bedroom flat. Southwark council, masterminding the transformation with developers Lend Lease, says the scheme brings long-overdue regeneration to an area long blighted by poverty and post-war brutalist housing, and that money it generates will finance thousands of affordable homes. Critics say the transformation is part of a wider trend in which poorer residents are banished from central London neighbourhoods and replaced by wealthy incomers and buy-to-let investors. They point to one planned new towerblock near the Heygate where Lend Lease successfully argued against including any affordable housing as it would be too costly to build the additional entrance and lifts needed to separate social tenants from their richer neighbours. "It's like something from the Edwardian era," said Darren Johnson, a Green member of the London Assembly, who argues the Heygate should have been revamped rather than replaced. "It sends an absolutely appalling message and it's not about building the sort of mixed communities that we absolutely need." Completed in 1974, the Heygate once housed more than 3,000 people. While the large, sunny homes were popular with many residents, the estate acquired a fearsome reputation, one that locals argue was partly the product of neglect but mainly an invention of the media. The project to replace the Heygate began in 1999, but a change in developer and the credit crisis brought a series of delays, and many of the social tenants who departed with a pledge they could return to new homes have since given up. Arguably greater problems still faced the 100 or so Heygate residents who, like Glasspool, owned their flats and were offered what Southwark insists is a fair market value to leave. Many complained the sums were far too small to stay in the area and some have decamped as far away as Slough and St Albans. "The dispersal of people from the area is pretty shocking," said Jerry Flynn, a former Heygate resident who campaigns against the scheme. "The vast majority of leaseholders have had to move a long way out to afford another property." Glasspool is declining to speak publicly, but is understood to have been offered significantly less for his three-bedroom home than would be needed to buy a one-bedroom flat in the new development. Southwark's compulsory purchase of his home took effect at midnight on Sunday. Fiona Colley, Southwark's cabinet member for regeneration, said the council regretted it could not reach agreement with Glasspool, but "cannot maintain 26 acres of land for one person". She said: "The regeneration will replace buildings that have long been unacceptably poor quality with comfortable, warm, dry and safe homes in a great part of London." Southwark says 1,013 council-rented properties in the Heygate will be replaced with 79 at "social rent", or 40% of market rates, with another 212 homes at 50% and 300 more under shared ownership. Overall, 25% of the homes on the Heygate site will be designated affordable, although opponents argue this can mean rents well above the previous council levels. The council argues that this is a good result given developers often bargain hard to have the proportion of affordable homes reduced further. This was the case with another Lend Lease project, a few hundred metres from the Heygate, where work begins soon on a 37-storey tower. None of these 284 homes, currently priced between £350,000 and £1.1m, will be offered at a discount. Instead, Lend Lease has given Southwark £3.5m to spend on social housing elsewhere and will contribute to a new leisure centre. A report by council officers said Lend Lease baulked at providing social units as this would require a second lobby and lift shaft to separate the two types of resident, adding: "Not doing so would have significant implications on the values of the private residential properties." Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |