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

[editor]

Fucking outrageous.

 

[William of Walworth]

Missed stuff originlly. Disgusting

 

[agricola]

So they havent even agreed the plans for the "affordable" units with a developer yet?

 

[editor]

So they havent even agreed the plans for the "affordable" units with a developer yet?

It sickens me to the stomach what they've got away with here. Lend Lease are laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[MillwallShoes]

grim.

 

[Belushi]

I bet the 'affordable' units will be some shitty block hidden well away from the rest of the development.

 

[MillwallShoes]

london is going to get totally beyond "normal" working peoples' reach soon. will be just a big play ground for nashing yuppies who arrive after uni and leave when kid comes

 

[MillwallShoes]

Missed stuff originlly. Disgusting

bought by the sort of people who will no doubt when having "drinks" with their friends say that walworth road as a "bit scummy." but our flat is loooovveeellly.

 

[Favelado]

london is going to get totally beyond "normal" working peoples' reach soon. will be just a big play ground for nashing yuppies who arrive after uni and leave when kid comes

It's largely already true. Dalston and Elephant are posh, or on their way to being. They were two of the least posh places in the city, there's already not much left.

 

[MillwallShoes]

yes fo sho

 

[coley]

yes fo sho

Never thought I would feel sorry for Londoners,but it seems you are being massively shafted, as VP advocates,some lamppost ornamentation would not go amiss, though it has to be asked,who elected these wankers in the first place.

 

[eatmorecheese]

Heygate flats being marketed in Asia. What a fucking stitch-up this has been.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...ats-to-overseas-buyers-is-insult-8582422.html

Nice to know that even in this period of "austerity", and with an acute housing crisis, we can dig deep and provide accommodation to rich incomers. I mean, fuck it, the locals only live there, right?

Total. Fucking. Stitch Up.

 

[Dogsauce]

'Affordable' housing definitions should be based on a reasonable product of the local or national median wage. It's bollocks as it is.

Even up here in the north near me, the council was providing a 25% subsidy on 2-bedroom flats in a converted mill development, using council-owned 'public benefit' billboard space to promote them for the developer at about £110,000 each. Meanwhile, much more roomy two-bedroom Victorian terraces (with freehold) on nice streets 100 metres away sell for £75,000 - £95,000. What was the point? I suppose it's just to snare the new-mini owning 'urban living' fuckwits, but I'd prefer that council money went to more deserving causes.

 

[ViolentPanda]

'Affordable' housing definitions should be based on a reasonable product of the local or national median wage. It's bollocks as it is.

Even up here in the north near me, the council was providing a 25% subsidy on 2-bedroom flats in a converted mill development, using council-owned 'public benefit' billboard space to promote them for the developer at about £110,000 each. Meanwhile, much more roomy two-bedroom Victorian terraces (with freehold) on nice streets 100 metres away sell for £75,000 - £95,000. What was the point? I suppose it's just to snare the new-mini owning 'urban living' fuckwits, but I'd prefer that council money went to more deserving causes.

TBF, if you own a new Mini, you should really make sure your housing is accessible.

Because owning one of them puts you on the kneecapping list!!!

 

[editor]

I posted a piece here but I think I was too angry to make as much sense as I'd like:
http://www.urban75.org/blog/southwa...ate-flats-are-flogged-off-to-overseas-buyers/

 

[Dogsauce]

Oh, and have they let any developers do anything like 'offsetting' affordable homes by building them in other areas (or even other cities?) I'm surprised the tories/new labour haven't come up with that policy yet. They could clear London estates and require developers to build a thousand affordable homes in Hartlepool or something, so that people hit by the benefit cap in London could be shipped out there. It's exactly the sort of shit they'd do, isn't it?

 

[coley]

Oh, and have they let any developers do anything like 'offsetting' affordable homes by building them in other areas (or even other cities?) I'm surprised the tories/new labour haven't come up with that policy yet. They could clear London estates and require developers to build a thousand affordable homes in Hartlepool or something, so that people hit by the benefit cap in London could be shipped out there. It's exactly the sort of shit they'd do, isn't it?

It's coming, they already tried that a year or so ago didn't they, moving Londoners to the more "affordable regions"

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Call for drastic cuts to car park spaces at Heygate redevelopment

Photo op details – Jenny meets local objectors?
Time: 10am
Friday: 31st May 2013
Location: Heygate Estate – corner of Walworth Rd/Elephant Rd

Despite local objections , the number of car park spaces at the Heygate Estate is set to more than double from 244[ii] parking spaces to 616 spaces under Southwark Council redevelopment plans. The Council justified this increase after accepting the developers Lend Lease argument that this it is ‘required for viability purposes’[iii]. The site is already located within an Air Quality Management Area[iv], exceeding legal pollution limits. The Mayor of London approved the outline planning application on 27 February 2013[v].

“Southwark Council appear to have disregarded their own local polices on car parking[vi] by caving into the developers demands for excessive spaces”

”It baffles me how the council can claim that there will be no further deterioration of air quality [vii] from more than doubling the number of car park spaces and the inevitable increase in traffic. Particularly as the area already suffers from illegal levels of vehicle pollutants that are harmful to human health”

“Replacing council homes with mostly extortionately priced flats with car park spaces for rich overseas buyers and landlord investors is disgraceful when so many local people are desperate for housing”

Mayor’s planning application Stage 2 report on Heygate Estate, lists the ‘high number of car parking spaces proposed’ as one of the objections raised by respondents at the public consultation. Para 72 lists http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/planning_decisions-heygate_estate_masterplan_report.pdf

[ii] Southwark Council 1998 survey of Heygate Estate. Paragraph 4.6.3.1 ‘the parking provision is confirmed at 244 spaces’ http://halag.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/allot_max_survey_heygate_1998.pdf

[iii] Mayor’s planning application Stage 2 report on Heygate Estate planning application. The section on parking, para 59 says ‘The proposed level of parking (c.25% provision for residential units) exceeds local policy, but the Council has accepted the applicant’s argument that this is required for viability purposes.’ http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/planning_decisions-heygate_estate_masterplan_report.pdf

[iv]Under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework set by the Government under the Environment Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”), boroughs must regularly review and assess air quality within their boroughs and designate Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) where UK standards and objectives are currently not being met. The Heygate Estate is currently located in an Air Quality Management Area for both Particulate Matter PM10 and Nitrogen Dioxide No2 http://aqma.defra.gov.uk/aqma-details.php?aqma_id=132

[v] In response to the planning application stage 2 referral from Southwark Council, the Mayor of London (on 27th February 2013) decided that he is‘content to allow Southwark Council to determine the case itself, subject to any action that the Secretary of State may take, and do not therefore wish to direct refusal or to take over the applications for my own determination.’ http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/planning_decisions-heygate_estate_masterplan_final_decision.pdf. The application is for the demolition of all existing structures and bridges; and outline planning permission for redevelopment to provide a mixed use development of buildings comprising upto 2,469 residential units. The applicant is Lend Lease

[vi] Southwark Council Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) on sustainable transport, paragraph 4.2.6 (Transport SPD – planning for sustainable transport) on Central Activity Zones (which the Heygate Estate is located) encourages limited or no car parking spaces in large scale developments http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2208/sustainable_transport_spd

Mayor’s planning application Stage 2 report on Heygate Estate, lists the ‘high number of car parking spaces proposed’ as one of the objections raised by respondents at the public consultation. Para 72 lists http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/planning_decisions-heygate_estate_masterplan_report.pdf

[vii] In respect to air quality, the South Plan states: para 9.28 ‘planning permission will not be granted for development that would lead to a reduction in air quality’ http://planningonline.southwark.gov.uk/DocsOnline/Documents/224976_1.pdf

 

[ddraig]

quarter of the site as parking?!?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/07/27/fatema-ahmed/southwarks-austerity-firesale/

Southwark blames austerity and the repeated slashing of social housing subsidies for the lack of social rented units in the scheme. Central government cuts weren’t the reason the council started looking to release the ‘latent value locked up in the land beneath’ the Heygate in the late 1990s. But now there’s a £23 million hole in their 2014-15 budget, with a 10 per cent cut coming the year after. Money from developers around the borough – for public facilities, a few affordable homes, some training schemes – is the only new cash the council is going to get. In 2011-12 it reported £67 million from such agreements, up from £15.5 million the year before. The median income of the social housing tenants it already has is £9100 – not much council tax revenue to be had there.​

​

​

Since signing the regeneration agreement with Lend Lease, the council has refused to say how much it was selling the land for. The figure came out by accident at the beginning of the year: £50 million. It has spent £44 million buying out leaseholders and rehousing tenants. The staggered nature of the development – due to be finished in 2025 – means that Lend Lease can build the most profitable sections first and put in the affordable homes when it wants. Or it could just sell the land, at a higher price, without building them at all.​

​

​

 

[Greebo]

quarter of the site as parking?!?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/07/27/fatema-ahmed/southwarks-austerity-firesale/

Fuck me sideways with a piledriver! Couldn't they have done subterranean or taller multistorey parking and kept more space for flats?

 

[equationgirl]

Fuck me sideways with a piledriver! Couldn't they have done subterranean or taller multistorey parking and kept more space for flats?

If that's the case I'm surprised they haven't gone for that option.

 

[eatmorecheese]

Venality, incompetence and capitalist roaders. All in a neat package.

 

[cuppa tee]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...ate-forced-to-move-out-of-london-8743216.html

 

[eatmorecheese]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...ate-forced-to-move-out-of-london-8743216.html

Fiona Colley, cabinet member for regeneration at Southwark council said: “We are in some difficult times economically and we are getting a great deal for Londoners.”

Utterly shameless.

 

[agricola]

Fiona Colley, cabinet member for regeneration at Southwark council said: “We are in some difficult times economically and we are getting a great deal for those Londoners who helped to negotiate this deal.”

quote fixed

 

[salem]

Fiona Colley, cabinet member for regeneration at Southwark council said: “We are in some difficult times economically and we are getting a great deal for Londoners.”

Those left maybe.

 

[Gniewosz]

It will be interesting to see what council decides on Cressingham Gardens and how many council homes will be left

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Information Commissioners Office order Southwark to reveal confidential info about the Heygate deal to reduce affordable housing.....but Southwark refuse:

Southwark Council is set to refuse to release confidential information about a development deal that saw them reduce the amount of affordable housing.

The borough will appeal the Information Commissioner’s Office decision that it should release the financial viability assessment used by Lend Lease to slash the affordable housing from 35 to 25 per cent in its £1.5 billion regeneration of the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle.

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/deve...-demands-about-heygate-estate/6528392.article

 

[sleaterkinney]

It's largely already true. Dalston and Elephant are posh, or on their way to being. They were two of the least posh places in the city, there's already not much left.

Is Elephant posh now?

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Is Elephant posh now?

Not really. There's been new flats built etc, but it remains a predominantly working class area with lots of social housing...though that is changing fast, as the old community is moved out and houses are renovated/rebuilt and re-let/sold at extortionate prices. Fair number of students in the area. Not much evidence of posh coffee bars and delis......yet.....