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Judge orders Heygate Estate affordable housing figures to be made public (15 May 2014)

Date: 15/05/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Judge orders Heygate Estate affordable housing figures to be made public

An appeal judge has ruled that Southwark Council and its partner, private developer Lend Lease, must make public the financial details of the social housing component to the Heygate Estate regeneration scheme.

The redevelopment of the Heygate Estate at Elephant & Castle in southeast London has been mired in controversy.

In February this year, it was reported on the blog Urban75.org that the redevelopment would provide 2,535 new homes, but just 79 social housing rental units. The information appeared in an edited copy of a confidential regeneration agreement uploaded online, which formed part of the council’s compulsory purchase proceedings against tenants still resident on the Heygate Estate.

The Heygate Estate was built in the 1970s as a social housing project but over the years some of the flats have been bought by private buyers.

The estate is being redeveloped by Southwark Council and Lend Lease in a £1.5 billion regeneration scheme which was supposed to offer affordable housing, but under which private buyers would have to pay £310,000 for a one-bedroom flat.

Southwark Council also reduced the amount of affordable housing offered under the redevelopment from 35% of the housing available to 25%.

London newspaper the Evening Standard reports that Lend Lease has said that it is not financially viable to provide the number of affordable homes originally envisaged in the plans.

The council has refused information requests regarding the financial details of the redevelopment of the estate – but at an information rights tribunal, Judge Nicholas Warren ordered Southwark Council and Lend Lease to publish details of the scheme’s “viability assessment”.

The tribunal was convened to consider an appeal by Southwark Council to keep financial details of the regeneration scheme private. It is thought to council has spent as much as £70,000 on the appeal.

Southwark Council’s development partner Lend Lease is now expected to make public full details of the figures relating to projected sales to private buyers – but will be allowed to keep detailed financial information private.

Southwark’s Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes has said that housing scheme should represent a fair deal for local residents – and not “plum deals for big developers”.

Southwark Council has given a “Right to Return” to former residents of the Heygate Estate once the redevelopment has been completed and former tenants will have priority over other housing applicants, according to Southwark Council’s website. Southwark Council began rehousing tenants and homeowners at the estate in 2008. The final demolition of the estate commenced in February this year, as the first stage of new homes at Trafalgar Place was nearing completion.

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