Heygate Estate redevelopment: just 79 social rented units out of a total 2,535 new homes

[Paulie]

A few examples of Southwark officials and patronage...

http://betterelephant.org/blog/2013/04/09/report-uncovers-corruption-at-the-elephant/

 

[friendofdorothy]

I went past there for the first time since it was demolished - its such a waste.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I went past there for the first time since it was demolished - its such a waste.

Greebo and I did the same last October, on the way to Liverpool St. station, to visit my parents in Norfolk. It was a shock. The irony of the situation(forme) has been that my parents and their (at that time) 2 young children were evicted from a 2 room "flat" in Deacon Street because the street had been CPO'd in order to demolish the houses to make way for The Heygate.
There was no good reason to demolish The Heygate. The flats weren't in a slum, they were built on one. They were structurally-sound where the Gerry-built terraces they replaced (already manky before WW2 according to local history) weren't. This was all about money,and some councillors and officers of Southwark council fucking over Southwark residents in order to feather their nests and their CVs.

 

[Belushi]

The Guardian has seen a copy of the developers financial viability assessment

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...social-housing-regeneration-oliver-wainwright

 

[cantsin]

A few examples of Southwark officials and patronage...

http://betterelephant.org/blog/2013/04/09/report-uncovers-corruption-at-the-elephant/

that makes for some grim reading there, just so brazen - am guessing it' always been like this , it's just now we get to track the movements of key personnel through the revolving doors - that fact doesn't make it any easier to deal with though.

 

[equationgirl]

It often seems that all manner of ropey calculations are used in planning applications yet there doesn't appear to be a mechanism for councils to question them or even ask for more information on them. Planning law needs to be overhauled to prevent a complete loss of social housing.

 

[Dogsauce]

It's just the blatantness of the piss-taking, which is backed up by the Mayor who has over-ruled local authorities when they've kicked up a fuss and denied permission. London is being trampled over by the super-rich, and they're laughing about it.

 

[friendofdorothy]

The Guardian has seen a copy of the developers financial viability assessment

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...social-housing-regeneration-oliver-wainwright

its shocking.

 

[equationgirl]

its shocking.

Aye. It's so shocking I thought it must be criminal, then I was horrified to find out it wasn't.

 

[toblerone3]

The Guardian has seen a copy of the developers financial viability assessment

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...social-housing-regeneration-oliver-wainwright

more than 7000 words the article is long cat

 

[toblerone3]

Aye. It's so shocking I thought it must be criminal, then I was horrified to find out it wasn't.

It does show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system of viability assessments is broken. It exposes some of the tricks that developers are using. And they are dirty tricks

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Update,

No profit / 'Overage' for Southwark Council in their big Heygate rebuild scheme. Surprise Surpise. It's so fucked up I don't know whether to laugh or cry

 

[cantsin]

Update,

No profit / 'Overage' for Southwark Council in their big Heygate rebuild scheme. Surprise Surpise. It's so fucked up I don't know whether to laugh or cry

unbelievable....so obviously, predictably corrupt / wrong

 

[Pickman's model]

Update,

No profit / 'Overage' for Southwark Council in their big Heygate rebuild scheme. Surprise Surpise. It's so fucked up I don't know whether to laugh or cry

that's fucking appalling, even for a shitty local authority.

am sat here equally puzzled as to whether hilarity or melancholy the correct response.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Lend Lease are big and clever (well in their eyes perhaps). Lot's of internal companies moving £££ around with each other and hey presto no profit !

It made into this week's Private Eye.

 

[Crispy]

The incompetence/corruption/greed (underline/strike out as applicable) is just stunning.

 

[editor]

*threads merged

 

[editor]

I still await criminal charges because this is, as Crispy says, incompetence/corruption/greed on a breathtakingly large scale.

 

[Crispy]

It'll need a clever lawyer to find the actual *illegal* thing that anyone did though.

 

[Pickman's model]

Lend Lease are big and clever (well in their eyes perhaps). Lot's of internal companies moving £££ around with each other and hey presto no profit !

It made into this week's Private Eye.

That 'follow the money' series recently on bbc4 featured a company doing just the same thing

 

[Favelado]

Oh my god. A perfect story of how normal people get laughed in their faces even before this...but now. This needs to trigger a bigger campaign against Lend Lease. They can't be allowed to get away with this.

 

[salem]

Stunningly brazen. Lend Lease have mugged us. Literally screwed us over without any pretense of shame. Just straight cunted us off.

Now I really reckon it's 50/50 on whether it's collusion or incompetence. I'm not sure which would be worse. In any case it wasn't "Southwark" who fucked up, it was the people who worked for them (well for themselves mostly it seems)

I mean the brilliant 'revolving door' blog piece becomes even more angering.

Take Tom Branton.

Tom Branton
Tom Branton was Southwark’s lead officer responsible for the procurement of Lend Lease as regeneration partner and who authored the report to cabinet recommending the signing of the regeneration agreement in July 2010.

Tom subsequently left the Council in 2011 to start work directly for Lend Lease, where he is now Development Manager for the Elephant & Castle project.

I mean this man* has simply fucked us. His head should be adorning a spike on the railway bridge at the top of the Walworth Road.

However according to LinkedIn he has been shipped off to work as a 'Senior Development Manager' for Lend Lease in Malaysia. Too much heat back home? Seems like he has gotten away with it.

* and others too, but lets start with him

 

[equationgirl]

I just don't have the words to describe how fucking corrupt this all is. No overage at all? There is no way that's right, not in this housing market. There must be an enquiry on this.

 

[friendofdorothy]

still don't understand why this isn't a huge public scandal.

 

[Favelado]

still don't understand why this isn't a huge public scandal.

No Kardashians involved?

 

[treelover]

Very British Corruption.

 

[stethoscope]

Update,

No profit / 'Overage' for Southwark Council in their big Heygate rebuild scheme. Surprise Surpise. It's so fucked up I don't know whether to laugh or cry

Great campaign/site - if utterly rage inducing stuff on there. Amongst so many 'redevelopment' schemes going on around London at the moment totally shafting social housing, their tenants and communities, Heygate really is the biggest scandal of them all and the corruption seems to be getting more glaring all the time. I seem to think Lend Lease were one of those involved in blacklisting too.

 

[friendofdorothy]

will someone refresh my memory as to how much this destruction of public housing, has cost the Southwark council tax payer so far?

 

[salem]

The interesting thing about this one is it's objectively a clusterfuck. I mean a lot of the other redevelopment scandals come down to ideological issues, supporting social housing, should people have a 'right' to live in a certain area etc.

However here you have a black and white case of the tax payer getting screwed over. You've got a clear case of people by their own admission switching sides and clear conflicts of interest. It's all there and they haven't even bothered to try and cover it up. I'm sure people from all areas of the political spectrum are going to be angered by this.

But then what? The damage has been done and the people don't really care. I mean I've done nothing but whinge about it on here and share an article on facebook so I'm not saying that they're wrong but what can we do?

I feel like those people involved should be shamed. Shamed in front of their neighbours, they should be shamed in front of the other parents at the school gates, they should be shamed in front of their own families.

Just the cold hard facts of the case brought to the immediate attention of those closest to them. People who they've ultimately helped steal from. It's public, they're bragging about it on linkedin after all. The people should around them should understand what they mean when they say they 'work for the council' or 'in property'

 

[Favelado]

Maybe with everyone working together on urban we can organise something. I'm not in London but i'll help in any way that 8 can long distance. There's a lot of us feeling angry about this.