Residents living on the Aylesbury Estate feel worse about conditions there than they did four years ago, according to a new report.
Street interviews with 100 Aylesbury Estate residents found that more than half felt negative about living conditions on the estate – however the report said that ‘overall dissatisfaction has slightly decreased since 2020’.
The Aylesbury Estate in Walworth is in the middle of a four-phase regeneration project which is being carried out by not-for-profit housing association Notting Hill Genesis (NHG).
NHG got permission to knock down and re-build the estate back in 2014 – but so far just 700 homes have been finished out of 3,575.
When we last reported on the issue in October we asked NHG if they expected the project to be complete by the stated deadline on their website of 2036. They said they were ‘working towards’ it but would not be drawn on whether they thought it would be achieved.
Several buildings due for demolition have been virtually emptied of their residents over the last 18 months, with just a few temporary accommodation tenants and leaseholders remaining.
However due to a combination of factors – including legal challenges, the pandemic and building safety regulations – the buildings continue to stand largely empty without a set date for when they could be demolished, and residents have complained that they have become magnets for squatters and drug-taking.
The council has been ramping up efforts in recent months to make the estate safer with the help of NHG and the police. They have also highlighted the recent openings of community facilities like the Una Marson Library and Harold Moody Health Centre as examples of how they are working to improve things for residents.
The report, by researchers Social Life commissioned by NHG and the council, also said there were “major” safety concerns among young people on the estate, particularly young women, and that the majority of residents didn’t understand what was going on with the regeneration.
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They added that NHG itself had even moved its offices off the estate “because of safety concerns”.
Responding to the report’s findings, NHG said they had been working with the council and the police to close 100 squats between April and October of this year.
They confirmed that the entirety of the estate which forms part of Phase 2b of the regeneration – Wendover, Padbury, Ravenstone and Winslow – is now behind hoarding to keep out squatters.
The report is the latest in a series of surveys which have been commissioned by NHG and Southwark Council over the last ten years with the aim of chartering changes in how residents living on the estate feel about the regeneration.
Researchers carried out street interviews with 100 residents, spoke with local traders, stakeholders and the council to gather the data.
Four indicators were assessed by the survey – the quality of local services, the sense of community, whether residents felt they had any influence over the regeneration, and levels of vulnerability and poverty on the estate.
“The research highlights that resident concerns about conditions of the estate have intensified since the last round of research in 2020,” the report’s authors say. “This is partly driven by the neglect of the blocks that have been decanted and left empty.”
Later on the report says: “The majority of street interviewees did not feel like they had a say over what happens in the local area (65.3%). This is lower than what is expected in comparable areas.
“In addition, there were concerns raised over transparency, the actioning of resident feedback into decision-making around the regeneration, and the lack of clarity on planning processes and the purpose of consultations.”
Responding to the points around safety and communication, NHG said: “We’re working closely with local services to improve safety and wellbeing and are committed to making future phases more secure and inclusive.
“While delays have made it difficult to provide fixed timelines, we continue to share updates through the Aylesbury Now newsletter.”
More positively the report found that ‘social cohesion’ had gone up to 84% up from 69% in 2020.
It also claimed that positivity about the regeneration had grown from 33% in 2021 to 55% in 2024.
The findings come a month after the News exposed local councillor and estate resident Ketzia Harper claims over the alarming decline of the sprawling Walworth Estate, and her repeated attempts to warn the council as squatting and illegal activity in the abandoned buildings spiralled out of control.
Those issues have been finally addressed by the council which launched an Aylesbury Taskforce to close the squats and has hired 24/7 security to roam the site.
But Harper, who resigned from the Labour party last week partly down to her frustration with the council’s handling of the regeneration, believes that unless the local authority terminates its relationship with NHG these patterns are likely to repeat themselves throughout each phase of the project.
This option was briefly explored by the council in 2023 but later dropped because they decided taking on the cost of the regeneration themselves would be too expensive.
Neither NHG nor the council have given any suggestion that a change to the development partnership is on the cards, and NHG say they are still pushing ahead with the regeneration and hope to start building work on Phase 2b as soon as possible.
Cllr Helen Dennis, the Cabinet Member for New Homes, said: “The Aylesbury Estate is one of Europe’s biggest estate renewals, which has already created more than 580 new council homes and brand-new community facilities like the Una Marson Library and Harold Moody Health Centre.
“We’re committed to delivering hundreds more homes for social rent on the Aylesbury Estate with phase 2b, working with Notting Hill Genesis.
“The estate renewal was always planned to take place over many years. However there have been delays that we know have affected residents. We’re sorry for the impact they have had and we’re doing all we can to help and support local people.
“Wherever possible we’re making the best possible use of empty blocks on the Aylesbury Estate, to provide temporary accommodation to many people who might otherwise have to move outside the borough.
“In March we created the Aylesbury Taskforce, with frontline officers as well as security and community wardens to tackle anti-social behaviour and issues including squatting. The taskforce has taken significant action to close squats and the overall number has fallen significantly.
“We take security and squatting in empty properties very seriously and carried out a major operation in May with police that closed 11 illegal squats. Since then we have closed down more than 75 squats.”
