An Aylesbury Estate resident has won a court case that could hinder Notting Hill Genesis’s (NHG) plans to build a 26-storey all-private tower on her old home.
Aysen Dennis’s victory in the high court today (January 17) could force NHG to “revisit” its plans to demolish 327 social rent flats on Phase 2B to make way for new apartments.
She has a personal connection to the flats earmarked for demolition, as one of them was her home for thirty years until she moved out into one of the estate’s newly built blocks.
NHG said they were “disappointed” by the decision and that they would “consider our options” regarding their next move.
The developer added that their outline planning permission to build roughly 3,600 homes on the Aylesbury Estate remained in place.
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Southwark Council granted NHG outline planning permission to demolish and redevelop the 2,700-apartment council estate in 2015.
Aysen and other campaigners have long argued the redevelopment amounts to “social cleansing” – mainly because the 1,600 social rent homes are roughly 800 fewer than existed previously.
Unable to stop the regeneration, community members fought to impose certain conditions on NHG – including restricting the new blocks’ heights to twenty storeys.
However, in 2022 NHG inserted the word ‘severable’ into its original planning permission, which Aysen’s lawyers say allowed it to “chop and change” what was agreed.
Those lawyers say this amendment allowed NHG to submit plans to build a 26-storey tower on Phase 2B – taller than what was originally agreed.
In court, Aysen’s team argued that the amendment was ‘material’ and therefore should have obtained a fresh planning permission to be permitted.
Following a high court hearing on Tuesday, November 28, a judge has ruled that the amendment was “material” and that it must be quashed.
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Alexandra Goldenberg, a solicitor at the Public Interest Law Centre, said: “NHG will now have to revisit that application as this puts into question how the redevelopment will be brought forward and could lead to NHG having to submit an entirely new planning application.”
The application in question would have meant demolishing the 373 flats, of which were 327 social rent when planning permission was granted last year.
The development was to provide 614 new homes but with just 163 at social rent, in towers ranging from five to 26 storeys.
An NHG spokesperson said: “This is bad news for residents as it delays the desperately needed construction of brand new, high-quality homes.”
Southwark News spoke to Aysen Dennis, who lived on Wendover block on Phase 2B for 30 years before recently moving out.
Celebrating her victory, she said: “It’s great. From the beginning, I knew the council was turning a blind eye to the developers making more profit.
“Instead of social cleansing, we want council housing.”
In the long term, 65-year-old Aysen hopes her victory will halt the £1.5million redevelopment and force Southwark Council and NHG to refurbish the estate instead.
An NHG spokesperson said: “While we are disappointed by the Court’s decision to uphold this Judicial Review in relation to the legal technical matter in question, the outline permission for the Aylesbury regeneration remains in place, as does our commitment to delivering the high-quality affordable housing and spaces so needed in this area.
“We will consider our options regarding this decision, while continuing to work with Southwark Council to ensure we can best meet the needs of the community as we complete this ambitious project.”
Walworth’s Aylesbury Estate was built by Southwark Council in the late 1970s. Once completed, it was one of the biggest public housing estates in Europe.
Over the next 40 years, it fell into disrepair, leaving Southwark Council to decide whether to refurbish the estate or demolish and redevelop it.
In 2014, Southwark Council made the controversial decision to demolish and rebuild the estate in partnership with private developers including NHG.
Cllr Helen Dennis, Cabinet Member for New Homes & Sustainable Development, said: “We are reviewing the High Court’s ruling on this judicial review, which rested on a highly technical planning argument that previously had no precedence in law.
“It is disappointing that this decision will mean delays to building new homes for residents, but our plans to replace the original homes that were badly built in the sixties are still in train.”
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This is fantastic news. There is now a chance that the building of an all private block on the site of social housing demolished by Southwark Council and sold off to private developers might be blocked. Unfortunately we are in the world of technicalities here and Notting Hill HA will together with its Council buddies be spending as much as it takes on legal fees to get this overturned.
In truth Notting Hill is no longer a social Housing Association but a ruthless private developer which remunerates its CEO and Directors with eyewatering salaries and pension benefits worth millions. The whole area of Walworth (I’m thinking of Manor Place and the surrounding streets of houses back in the 1960s 70s) and large parts of Bermondsey and especially Surrey Quays after the LDDC (who built and refurbished far more social housing than Southwark has ever done in the area) has effectively been part privatised. Like many people I’ve got my fingers crossed for the Aylesbury Campaign and wish them every success in the future.