Can Cameron’s Council Estate Plan Work?

David Cameron is on a blitz of housing policy announcements at the moment. First we had an idea for the direct commissioning of new homes, now we have plans for regenerating 100 council estates. Knocking down and rebuilding peoples’ homes is obviously always going to be controversial. But that doesn’t mean it is always wrong. If the hard work is done to win the support of estate residents, and more affordable homes get built as a result, it can be really positive. And where estates are old and run down it can be positively essential to invest in renewal or replacement. As we see it, Cameron’s regeneration proposals have two clear advantages:

·         You could get a lot more homes into London through council estate regeneration.

·         Second, the ‘Complete Streets’ approach the government is backing has real merits.

Read more on the Shelter blog.

Savills: Regen Model Could Create 360k Homes

Up to 360,000 extra homes could be created in London by redeveloping council estates to a higher density along street patterns, according to a government-commissioned report, Completing London’s Streets, carried out by consultancy Savills. The report compares a conventional approach to estate renewal, under which estates are replaced with new high-rise blocks, to an alternative ‘complete streets’ model. Under ‘complete streets’ estates are re-built in a street-based pattern. Savills estimates 1,750 hectares of London’s 8,500 council housing estates could be capable of ‘complete streets’ regeneration, leading to an increase in the number of existing homes of between 54,000 and 360,000. The modelling, carried out for the Cabinet Office, was based on a detailed study of six estates in London. Download the report from Savills website.