Aylesbury Estate regeneration reaches its next major milestone » Housing » 24dash.com

The regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate in south London - one of Europe's biggest housing estates - has reached its next major milestone with the release of a comprehensive phasing plan outlining how the 15-year rehousing programme will be delivered.

An exhibition on the Aylesbury Estate, which runs until tomorrow (August 9), will show tenants when they will be able to move to their new homes and leaseholders when their properties will be bought back by Southwark Council.

Southwark Council has developed a shorter phasing plan to enable Aylesbury residents to be rehoused within 15 years. This responded to residents’ concerns that the original phasing programme was too long. The result of having a shorter scheme is that more residents will need to move twice if they opt to move to a new home on the Aylesbury footprint.

Martin Smith, project director of the Aylesbury programme said: “We believe the phasing plan represents the best way forward for the Aylesbury scheme, which is a complex and multi-faceted programme.

“When devising the phasing plan, we have had to take a number of factors into consideration. These include the physical condition of homes and how best to maintain them, the physical infrastructure of the estate, and how we will build around this to ensure residents receive essential services throughout the scheme. We also have to regenerate the new area in the most economically viable way to ensure that we can afford to build the social housing for our tenants.”

Councillor Paul Noblet, Southwark Council’s executive member for regeneration, said: “We are pleased to have been able to respond to residents’ needs and reduce the Aylesbury rehousing programme down to 15 years. Following extensive consultation with residents, we have developed a scheme that will deliver a new sustainable community with better homes, community facilities, transport connections and open spaces.

“Our first priority in regenerating the Aylesbury is ensuring residents move to good-quality homes that meet their needs. I am confident we will be able to achieve that goal through the implementation of this phasing programme.”