All 581 homes on the first development site of the Aylesbury Estate will now be social housing after a deal was struck between Southwark Council and Notting Hill Genesis.
In a huge financial commitment Tooley Street has offered to stump up to £193 million to buy an extra 280 homes that would have been privately sold or put up at intermediate rent to boost its social housing stock.
The landmark agreement covers all of the regeneration sites known as ‘package A’ and ‘package B’ and will increase the overall number of social rent homes across the entire regenerated estate by a further 219; to 614 in total.
Work began on the ‘package A’ site in March last year and is due to be completed in 2021.
The extra council homes that will now be included on the site are made up of 229 on ‘package A’ and 252 in ‘package b’ – where construction is due to begin later this year.
The third phase of development – ‘package c’ – is remaining a Notting Hill Genesis scheme with mixed tenure.Formal papers submitted to Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, where the decision was ratified, explained: “There are over 600 households in shared accommodation and nearly 3,000 households in temporary accommodation in the borough.
“Pressure on the council’s homelessness services is relentless and in April alone we have ensured 221 people have been able to move inside from living on the streets.
“There is general agreement that we cannot return to business as usual when this pandemic is over.”
The council has been aided by the government’s decision to raise the borrowing cap for home building and further grant funding from City Hall – key issues Labour had long campaigned for.
There has also been sustained support from local Labour councillors in Faraday ward who lobbied hard to secure commitments for no net loss of council homes on the footprint of the mid-demolition estate.
Cllr Leo Pollak, Cabinet Member for social regeneration, new homes and great estates, said: “We’re really pleased that the first development site at the Aylesbury estate will now provide 581 brand new council homes for existing residents to move to, following through on our commitment to apply our ‘expand and enrich’ principles for council estates at the Aylesbury.
“This new arrangement sees our partnership with Notting Hill Genesis evolving where they take on the role of development manager in delivering these homes.
“This will mean we can speed up the delivery of high quality council homes that are built to last, and crucially bring forward options for rehousing residents on the estate to help keep the Aylesbury community together.”