A Southwark resident’s high court battle against the council is a step closer – after a judge gave her legal arguments the nod.
Aysen Dennis, 64, is battling to stay in her Aylesbury Estate home, which Southwark Council and developer Notting Hill Genesis plan to demolish – building a 25-storey all-private tower in its place.
Describing the council’s £1.5 billion redevelopment as “social cleansing” due to an alleged lack of affordable housing, Aysen hopes the high court battle will halt or delay the scheme.
Aysen said: “It’s brilliant. We have been waiting for our papers to be accepted and now we’ve been given the go-ahead.”
Outline planning permission to redevelop the Aylesbury Estate was granted in 2015.
Aysen’s legal argument against Southwark Council and the developer is highly technical and hinges on a single word that was inserted in the original planning permission.
Outline planning permission establishes the main principles of a development, but allows the developer to hammer out the finer details in subsequent planning applications.
But in July 2022, Notting Hill Genesis inserted the word ‘severable’ into the outline planning permission.
According to Aysen’s lawyers, the insertion of ‘severable’ would allow the developer to build “something different from the approved scheme”.
But when Notting Hill inserted this change, it did so as a non-material amendment. Non-material amendments are very minor changes and don’t require approval from elected councillors.
Aylesbury Estate tenant will fight for her home in the high court against Southwark Council
Aysen claims that the amendment was not minor, so should have been a material amendment.
“Southwark Council turned a blind eye to the amendment but, thankfully, we were watching,” Aysen said.
She says the council should now submit an entirely new outline planning application.
Southwark Council and Notting Hill Genesis are expected to argue the outline planning permission was “always severable” and that the amendment merely clarified that fact.
Aysen says, even if she does not win, she hopes her case will delay the development. “Even if it prolongs their plans for a few months, that is something for us,” she said.
“The more they have to wait, the more construction prices go up and Notting Hill’s profits go down.”
The 2,758-flat Aylesbury Estate was completed in 1977 but, in 2015, Southwark Council approved Notting Hill Genesis’ plans to redevelop the estate.
Campaigners had long argued that refurbishment was preferable and, in a 2001 ballot, 70 per cent of residents voted against demolition.
But Southwark Council argued the estate was in such disrepair that refurbishment wasn’t viable. In 2002 the head of Southwark’s housing and regeneration department said it would cost the council a whopping £200 million to refurbish the sprawling estate.
The estate is being demolished in phases. Phase 2B, where Aysen lives, is particularly controversial because it involves slashing the number of social rent homes by almost 50 per cent.
Across the entire Aylesbury Estate, the New Southwark Plan envisages building 4,200 new homes with at least 2,249 social rent homes – less than the 2,758 social rent flats it once hosted.
In April, Aysen held a popular anti-gentrification exhibition in her flat, documenting her decades-long campaigning against redevelopment.
A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “We accept the High Court’s decision to allow the judicial review to proceed regarding the s96a decision to the Outline Planning Permission. We look forward to the matter being resolved.
“We are very proud of our plans for the Aylesbury Estate regeneration which will deliver high-quality, safe and warm homes to replace those which are no longer fit for purpose. We are committed to creating a fantastic, thriving mixed community with quality public space, top-class facilities and improved play and sport areas.”
Southwark Council was approached for comment.
Aylesbury Estate tenant who refuses to leave to hold anti-gentrification exhibition in her flat