A woman who vowed to defy the bulldozers by refusing to leave her Aylesbury Estate flat has finally moved out.
Aysen Dennis, 65, has agreed to leave her Wendover Block home of 21 years, and move into one of the estate’s newly-built, council-owned flats, with a “heavy heart”.
However, she will continue her legal fight against the Phase 2B redevelopment which could yet scupper Southwark Council’s plans to demolish her block and build a 25-storey private tower on the site.
One of just a handful of people left on the Aylesbury Estate following Southwark Council’s 2005 decision to demolish and redevelop it, the place she was called home is largely an empty shell.
After years spent watching her neighbours leave, surrounded by empty walkways and boarded-up flats, 65-year-old Aysen has finally accepted the council’s offer of a new flat.
She said she feared that rejecting the offer would have had dire consequences for her long-term housing situation. However, Southwark Council insists she would never have been made homeless and that it would have sought an alternative housing offer if necessary.
Until now, she has spent years refusing to move in protest against the controversial Aylesbury Estate regeneration, which she and other campaigners point out will result in a net loss of social housing.
Midway through her move, Aysen said: “I am up and down crying most of the time. Collecting your memories is the difficult part.”
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Southwark Council took the decision to demolish the Aylesbury Estate and build a new estate in its place in 2005.
But it has struggled to convince Aysen, a campaigner who has fought against the council’s regeneration for decades, to vacate her home.
She has always argued the redevelopment would reduce the number of social rent homes from 2,402 and 1,600 and that refurbishment, not redevelopment, was the best option.
But after years of defiance, Aysen ultimately feared Southwark Council would “wash their hands” of her if she rejected the the council’s offer of a new home on the Aylesbury’s Estate’s First Development Site.
However, a Southwark Council was adamant this would not be the case. A spokesperson said: “For a tenant moving from a regen scheme the word homeless is never in the equation.
“We have alternative housing solutions for them – they are awarded higher banding, they are offered properties which they and we think would suit them, on viewing they may change their mind and we would ‘go back to the drawing board’ and seek an alternative offer in conversation with the resident, or of course, they bid for a property of their choice.”
Aysen’s new home is on the First Development Site – a portion of the Aylesbury Estate including 581 apartments.
Notting Hill Genesis had already planned to build 301 social rent homes on the site. But Southwark Council bought the 581 apartments off NHG in a deal worth £193 million in 2020.
This meant that all 581 apartments are now earmarked as social rent.
Despite the heartache of her move, Aysen says Southwark Council’s final offer was a good one and that her new flat has “a great view” with a balcony overlooking Burgess Park.
However, she is still pressing ahead with a legal challenge against Southwark Council in a bid to stall the estate’s regeneration.
Her lawyers will argue that plans to demolish her home, and build a 25-storey residential tower in its place, should not be allowed to proceed.
Their argument is highly technical and hinges on whether an alteration to the original planning permission should have been approved by elected councillors.
The hearing will take place on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, at the Royal Courts of Justice.
In April, Aysen hosted an exhibition in her flat documenting her decades of campaigning against regeneration. It captured Londoners’ attention and attracted over 800 visitors.
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Cllr Helen Dennis, Cabinet Member for New Homes & Sustainable Development, said: “We are thrilled that residents are happy with their new homes on the Aylesbury estate.
“Each of them deserves to have a home that they can be proud of and that meets the council’s high standards. That is why it’s so important that we’re replacing the homes that were badly built in the sixties and seventies, which are reaching the end of their life.
“We’ve built over 220 new council homes on the Aylesbury that are complete and being let to residents, with over 350 more new council homes underway.”
A Notting Hill Genesis 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 space, top-class facilities and improved play and sport areas.
“Our programme meets or exceeds the initial requirement for half of the development to be affordable housing, measured by the total number of ‘habitable rooms’. This approach was taken because of the need for family sized homes that can meet the needs of the local community, rather than simply replacing like-for-like and having large numbers of one or two-bed flats that will not help larger families.
“We will continue to work alongside the existing Aylesbury community whose involvement and support enable us to provide the homes, spaces and opportunities needed to make the most of Aylesbury Estate’s immense potential.”