All the big trees next to Carlton Mansions (by Somerleyton Road) have just been cut down
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
they've missed a trick, they could have got ovaltine to sponsor it
editor
hiraethified
No, the gentrification is already well underway. This is just the start of the upmarket, upwardly mobile shift along Somerleyton Road!
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Remarkable given how fucking rough it was when the big crack operation in the foyer was in full swing.
colacubes
Mr Hot Cookie
I knew there was something I forgot to tell you. They were doing it yesterday when I came over.
We’re here again. You call it gentrification, I call it regeneration of an underused street with a great potential to provide housing.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Brian Barnes (the muralist) was of the opinion that the trees were planted deliberately by the council to obscure the mural.
Given the political complexion of Lambeth Council that might suggest a narrow time frame of about May - November 1982 when the Tories had minority control of the council on the casting vote of the Tory mayor.
I have not consulted my "Deep Throat" source on such matters - but I will!
Given the political complexion of Lambeth Council that might suggest a narrow time frame of about May - November 1982 when the Tories had minority control of the council on the casting vote of the Tory mayor.
I have not consulted my "Deep Throat" source on such matters - but I will!
editor
hiraethified
Is it all going to be proper social housing?
No, because that’s not the only type of housing that is needed is it?!
editor
hiraethified
It is around here because plenty of luxury/unaffordable new properties have come on to the market with loads more on the way, while there has been precious little new social housing, and the needs of poor people are every bit as important as the needs of rich people.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
"A total of 304 rented properties will be built, of which 121 will be let at social-rent levels."
Brixton's residents shape the future of their housing
In terms of new build housing, that proportion is (sadly) quite extraordinary.
Brixton's residents shape the future of their housing
In terms of new build housing, that proportion is (sadly) quite extraordinary.
colacubes
Mr Hot Cookie
Article doesn’t show as I assume needs a subscription. But I assume the 3rd sector org mentioned in the headline are Brixton Green, who are not entirely trusted by locals due to a slightly dodgy track record. In theory the figures are better than average but I am v cynical about the headlines. Would be very happy to be proved wrong though.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
You'd be totally right be cynical, the developers' use of legal loopholes to get out of affordable housing quotas is widespread, I don't know enough about this site, it appears to be a "community-led development" (whatever that is??)
I'll C+P the article, hope that's OK.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Brixton's residents shape the future of their housing
18 July 2016 by Andy Hillier
New housing will be built on Somerleyton Road in south London, thanks to a not-for-profit community society
An artist's impression of how the development will look
Somerleyton Road was the heart of the Irish and Jamaican communities in Brixton, south London, from the 1950s until the properties on the road were demolished in 1968 to make way for a motorway.
The motorway was never built and, over the following decades, a hotchpotch of buildings sprung up along the road. In 2008, a group of local residents set up Brixton Green, a not-for-profit community benefit society, to lobby for the redevelopment of the land, much of which is owned by Lambeth Council, as part of a broader proposal to improve Brixton.
In November 2013, the council agreed to develop the site in partnership with the community, and planning permission was granted for a new affordable housing development last December. Construction will start later this year and will be completed by 2020.
A total of 304 rented properties will be built, of which 121 will be let at social-rent levels. A school for chefs, a nursery, a local shop, a health hub and a new home for the community theatre the Ovalhouse Theatre will also be built.
Dinah Roake, an architect and a co-opted trustee and vice-chair of Brixton Green, says it is pleased the plans have finally come to fruition but concedes it has been frustrating at times for residents.
"When people first became involved, they were very enthusiastic," says Roake, who joined the group in 2010. "It was the end of Labour's time in government and there were networks they could access to talk about things like community empowerment. They thought they had found an efficient way forward, but the process has proved more complicated than expected."
The scheme will require the residents to create a new charity, provisionally called the Somerleyton Trust, that will be granted a 250-year lease for most of the site, with the exception of the land on which the new theatre will be built. This section will be leased separately directly to the theatre.
The project is expected to cost about £100m, funded by a loan secured by Lambeth Council from the Public Works Loan Board, the government body that lends to local authorities. The new charity will repay the council using the money it raises from the rents it charges on the properties.
All the housing will be flats with from one to four bedrooms. Importantly, Roake says, the flats will be built to the same specifications, whether they are to be rented on the open market or provided at a social-rent level. The lower-rent properties will be distributed evenly around the development, avoiding the "poor doors" problems experienced on some mixed-housing developments. Overall, at least 50 per cent of the properties will be affordable housing.
Roake says residents will be able move into properties of different sizes if their circumstances change. For example, if a family paying social rent on a two-bedroom property needed three bedrooms, they could move into any of the three-bedroom properties that were due to become vacant, even if it was rented at a market rate at that time. The two-bedroom property the family previously occupied would then be rented out at a market rate to ensure the scheme continued to be financially viable.
Residents will also have a say in the management of the development because the new charity will be established on cooperative principles and residents will be represented at a board level.
"The point of the scheme is to build a community of people and not have a huge amount of churn," says Roake. "Because social housing is essentially rationed in the UK, we have a lot of people who are in need. This scheme will, we hope, give them secure housing and set an example to the private landlords.
"But it's not just about housing. It will also provide facilities - such as a nursery, a health and wellbeing hub and a school for chefs - that the community needs."
18 July 2016 by Andy Hillier
New housing will be built on Somerleyton Road in south London, thanks to a not-for-profit community society
An artist's impression of how the development will look
Somerleyton Road was the heart of the Irish and Jamaican communities in Brixton, south London, from the 1950s until the properties on the road were demolished in 1968 to make way for a motorway.
The motorway was never built and, over the following decades, a hotchpotch of buildings sprung up along the road. In 2008, a group of local residents set up Brixton Green, a not-for-profit community benefit society, to lobby for the redevelopment of the land, much of which is owned by Lambeth Council, as part of a broader proposal to improve Brixton.
In November 2013, the council agreed to develop the site in partnership with the community, and planning permission was granted for a new affordable housing development last December. Construction will start later this year and will be completed by 2020.
A total of 304 rented properties will be built, of which 121 will be let at social-rent levels. A school for chefs, a nursery, a local shop, a health hub and a new home for the community theatre the Ovalhouse Theatre will also be built.
Dinah Roake, an architect and a co-opted trustee and vice-chair of Brixton Green, says it is pleased the plans have finally come to fruition but concedes it has been frustrating at times for residents.
"When people first became involved, they were very enthusiastic," says Roake, who joined the group in 2010. "It was the end of Labour's time in government and there were networks they could access to talk about things like community empowerment. They thought they had found an efficient way forward, but the process has proved more complicated than expected."
The scheme will require the residents to create a new charity, provisionally called the Somerleyton Trust, that will be granted a 250-year lease for most of the site, with the exception of the land on which the new theatre will be built. This section will be leased separately directly to the theatre.
The project is expected to cost about £100m, funded by a loan secured by Lambeth Council from the Public Works Loan Board, the government body that lends to local authorities. The new charity will repay the council using the money it raises from the rents it charges on the properties.
All the housing will be flats with from one to four bedrooms. Importantly, Roake says, the flats will be built to the same specifications, whether they are to be rented on the open market or provided at a social-rent level. The lower-rent properties will be distributed evenly around the development, avoiding the "poor doors" problems experienced on some mixed-housing developments. Overall, at least 50 per cent of the properties will be affordable housing.
Roake says residents will be able move into properties of different sizes if their circumstances change. For example, if a family paying social rent on a two-bedroom property needed three bedrooms, they could move into any of the three-bedroom properties that were due to become vacant, even if it was rented at a market rate at that time. The two-bedroom property the family previously occupied would then be rented out at a market rate to ensure the scheme continued to be financially viable.
Residents will also have a say in the management of the development because the new charity will be established on cooperative principles and residents will be represented at a board level.
"The point of the scheme is to build a community of people and not have a huge amount of churn," says Roake. "Because social housing is essentially rationed in the UK, we have a lot of people who are in need. This scheme will, we hope, give them secure housing and set an example to the private landlords.
"But it's not just about housing. It will also provide facilities - such as a nursery, a health and wellbeing hub and a school for chefs - that the community needs."
editor
hiraethified
I'll believe that when I see it and things have changed a lot since that article was published.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
editor
hiraethified
There's been so much bullshit wafted around from Brixton Green and other parties, I don't think anyone knows what is going on.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Its a third. No different from the Mayors fastrack planning agreements of 35% on private developments of comparable size.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
A third is very high compared to UK wide new builds and their affordable housing commitments, and the lower percentage they DO have to show at planning stage is often diluted afterwards with clever skull-duggery.
I'd like to know if that third has remained at a third going into the last phase of the build next year, what their definition of affordable housing is, what their definition of "social rent" is, because it looks like they define the two differently. (The article claims 121 at social-rent levels and more than 50% of the total being "affordable homes").
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Brixton's residents shape the future of their housing
18 July 2016 by Andy Hillier
New housing will be built on Somerleyton Road in south London, thanks to a not-for-profit community society
An artist's impression of how the development will look
Somerleyton Road was the heart of the Irish and Jamaican communities in Brixton, south London, from the 1950s until the properties on the road were demolished in 1968 to make way for a motorway.
The motorway was never built and, over the following decades, a hotchpotch of buildings sprung up along the road. In 2008, a group of local residents set up Brixton Green, a not-for-profit community benefit society, to lobby for the redevelopment of the land, much of which is owned by Lambeth Council, as part of a broader proposal to improve Brixton.
In November 2013, the council agreed to develop the site in partnership with the community, and planning permission was granted for a new affordable housing development last December. Construction will start later this year and will be completed by 2020.
A total of 304 rented properties will be built, of which 121 will be let at social-rent levels. A school for chefs, a nursery, a local shop, a health hub and a new home for the community theatre the Ovalhouse Theatre will also be built.
Dinah Roake, an architect and a co-opted trustee and vice-chair of Brixton Green, says it is pleased the plans have finally come to fruition but concedes it has been frustrating at times for residents.s."
As I used to live on the site I can say this article is inaccurate.
The Council officers were looking at the site for possible Council led development before Brixton Green ever appeared. Other Councils had already started at looking at building housing again. And Lambeth was doing the same. This has nothing to do with Brixton Green lobbying. In practise Brixton Green piggy backed on what officers were thinking of doing anyway.
Brixton Green haven't raised finance to do this scheme.
Ovalhouse have raised their own money. Council are going to borrow to build scheme.
What Brixton Green have brought to the table in concrete terms is very little.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Yes but private developers as you say dilute percentage by time building work starts. The percentage promised by BG article is that.A promise
Confusion is also due to BG bigging up their influence on this project.
Council as going to borrow money to build the housing. They are going to do the financial modelling to work out how money can be paid back. This will affect rents.
As a Council they can borrow more cheaply then small organisation. Also borrow cheaply of the Public Loans Works Board.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Yeah, I do think that's clear in the article, that the Council will be funding. It's the investment in the charity and the repaying on the loans as a model for social housing building that interests me, how will that work, can lessons be learned/replicated?
I think Brixton Green is a local community lobby group who've been plugging away at this since 2008, I don't see them professing to be anything else tbh?
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I do think that's clear in the article, that the Council will be funding. It's the investment in the charity and the repaying on the loans as a model for social housing building that interests me, how will that work, can lessons be learned/replicated?
I think Brixton Green is a local community lobby group who've been plugging away at this since 2008, I don't see them professing to be anything else tbh?
What exactly do you think BG have done?
Ovalhouse have paid their own architects and raised their own funds to move to Brixton. Ovalhouse were looking at the site before BG arrived on the scene.
Council have paid for a consortium of architects and professionals to develop proposal for the site.
I don't see what BG have done. Yet they have been claiming credit. As I told you this development was not BGs idea.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
I think BG claim to have lobbied for residential development of the land, I don't see them trying to copyright the idea ffs. They're local residents who have voiced what they think, that's fine by me - to what extent that influenced council officers, or anyone else, I have no idea. Don't really care to be honest, it's not the most interesting aspect of the story for me. What's interesting is the comparibly high percentage of affordable housing/social rent housing compared to national average, whether that has been sustained, and if the model of a central administrative charity who holds the capital investment debt and pays back through market-rate rent profits is a sustainable and replicatable model.
It seems you don't think much of Brixton Green, no idea why. But regardless, that is an old article and the model (as editor suggests) could well have changed, so I'd have to find out more, unless you know?
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Even at the point this article was written it was clear that Lambeth had cocked-up issuing a CPO on the factory site at 16-20 Somerleyton Road.Brixton's residents shape the future of their housing
18 July 2016 by Andy Hillier
New housing will be built on Somerleyton Road in south London, thanks to a not-for-profit community society
An artist's impression of how the development will look
Somerleyton Road was the heart of the Irish and Jamaican communities in Brixton, south London, from the 1950s until the properties on the road were demolished in 1968 to make way for a motorway.
The motorway was never built and, over the following decades, a hotchpotch of buildings sprung up along the road. In 2008, a group of local residents set up Brixton Green, a not-for-profit community benefit society, to lobby for the redevelopment of the land, much of which is owned by Lambeth Council, as part of a broader proposal to improve Brixton.
In November 2013, the council agreed to develop the site in partnership with the community, and planning permission was granted for a new affordable housing development last December. Construction will start later this year and will be completed by 2020.
A total of 304 rented properties will be built, of which 121 will be let at social-rent levels. A school for chefs, a nursery, a local shop, a health hub and a new home for the community theatre the Ovalhouse Theatre will also be built.
Dinah Roake, an architect and a co-opted trustee and vice-chair of Brixton Green, says it is pleased the plans have finally come to fruition but concedes it has been frustrating at times for residents.
"When people first became involved, they were very enthusiastic," says Roake, who joined the group in 2010. "It was the end of Labour's time in government and there were networks they could access to talk about things like community empowerment. They thought they had found an efficient way forward, but the process has proved more complicated than expected."
The scheme will require the residents to create a new charity, provisionally called the Somerleyton Trust, that will be granted a 250-year lease for most of the site, with the exception of the land on which the new theatre will be built. This section will be leased separately directly to the theatre.
The project is expected to cost about £100m, funded by a loan secured by Lambeth Council from the Public Works Loan Board, the government body that lends to local authorities. The new charity will repay the council using the money it raises from the rents it charges on the properties.
All the housing will be flats with from one to four bedrooms. Importantly, Roake says, the flats will be built to the same specifications, whether they are to be rented on the open market or provided at a social-rent level. The lower-rent properties will be distributed evenly around the development, avoiding the "poor doors" problems experienced on some mixed-housing developments. Overall, at least 50 per cent of the properties will be affordable housing.
Roake says residents will be able move into properties of different sizes if their circumstances change. For example, if a family paying social rent on a two-bedroom property needed three bedrooms, they could move into any of the three-bedroom properties that were due to become vacant, even if it was rented at a market rate at that time. The two-bedroom property the family previously occupied would then be rented out at a market rate to ensure the scheme continued to be financially viable.
Residents will also have a say in the management of the development because the new charity will be established on cooperative principles and residents will be represented at a board level.
"The point of the scheme is to build a community of people and not have a huge amount of churn," says Roake. "Because social housing is essentially rationed in the UK, we have a lot of people who are in need. This scheme will, we hope, give them secure housing and set an example to the private landlords.
"But it's not just about housing. It will also provide facilities - such as a nursery, a health and wellbeing hub and a school for chefs - that the community needs."
I will be very surprised if this bit of the site (which already has planning permission for housing) doesn't end up as part of the Lexadon empire.
The site owner has sold the site now occupied by Brewdog Bar to Lexadon some years ago. There is some sort of logic in believing that Lexadon (almost Lambeth Council's in-house private developer) will seize the day, surely?
