Campaigners have left the Aylesbury Estate plastered with angry banners accusing Southwark Council of “social cleansing” and “scam” regeneration.
Roughly 100 protestors marched down Walworth Road in a demonstration against the demolition of the Aylesbury Estate on Saturday, July 8, leaving the banners in their wake.
Aysen Dennis, from Fight4Aylesbury, who is taking the council to court, said: It’s time for Southwark Council to listen to the Aylesbury tenants and refurbish the estate, or we can retrofit it!! All the empty boarded-up flats need people to live in them.
“Southwark Council claims to be an environmentally friendly borough but demolishing and rebuilding the biggest estate in western Europe creates a huge carbon footprint.”
In 2014, Southwark Council signed a £1.5bn deal with Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) to carry out the eighteen-year regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate.
But with construction stalling in 2020, the council paid NHG £193 million for 280 homes which the council would turn into social housing.
Under previous agreements these would have been sold privately or let for ‘intermediate’ rent.
But campaigners argue the £193million Southwark Council paid to Notting Hill Genesis was a “bad deal” at £690,000 per home.
Kieron Williams, Leader of Southwark Council, said: “We’re currently on site building over 580 high-quality council homes on the Aylesbury estate for existing residents to move to, making it the largest new council homes site in the country, and with even more social rent homes on the way in future phases.
“We’ll be handing over the keys for many of these homes later this year and are looking forward to residents from the estate moving in.
“We’re replacing the homes that were badly built in the ’60s and ‘70s, which are reaching the end of their life.”
An NHG spokesperson said: “We are very proud of our plans for the regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate, which will replace old, inefficient homes that are no longer fit for purpose with warm, safe, high-quality housing that will benefit existing and future residents alike.
“The option of refurbishing the estate has been looked at before and has long been deemed impractical. Instead, the focus has been on providing a vibrant, thriving community with quality public realm, vital services and improved areas for play and relaxation.
“Once the new homes have been built, the improved energy efficiency will have a large environmental benefit compared to the existing estate. We also submitted a full environmental report outlining what would be done to mitigate areas of risk and ensure the regeneration is as green as possible.”