Residents fear being forced out of London if estate demolition goes ahead

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents on an estate under threat of being bulldozed fear they’ll have to leave London if the demolition goes ahead.

People living on the Fenwick estate in Clapham are worried they will not be able to stay in the area if Lambeth council flattens hundreds of homes there as part of its plans to redevelop the housing complex.

The council claims it needs to rebuild the estate because refurbishing it would be too expensive.

Lambeth says demolishing Fenwick and starting again would add 300 extra flats on the site and improve the design of the area. The estate is one of six earmarked to be rebuilt by Lambeth.

But existing residents like O’Niel Johnson, 51, are against Lambeth’s plans. Mr Johnson, a leaseholder of a four-bedroom house on the estate, said he feared he wouldn’t be able to afford a similar property in the area if the redevelopment went ahead.

He said: “I’m against it. It’s going to mess up my life but I don’t really have a say. I don’t think they’re giving enough compensation to the people who like me have lived here for years.

“The price[s] they are offering us are not the estate agent ones. Last time I checked they were talking about offering £550,000. Where do you buy a four-bedroom house in Clapham for £550,000? I don’t know where their maths comes from.

“We’re talking about people having to go to Margate because they can’t afford anywhere near here.”

Fellow estate resident Joao De Oliveira said rebuilding Fenwick would be a waste of money.

The 25-year-old said: “I’m against it. My personal view is that it’s a waste of money for sure. Maybe the other flats have problems but this one in particular is in a very good condition.

“The only issues are with the estate outside of the flat. When it rains the balcony running outside of the flats becomes a puddle of water. The outside stairs up to the first floor flats used to be super slippery when it got wet – it was quite dangerous – but they’ve fixed that now.”

Lambeth started moving residents out of the estate in 2016. The local authority’s redevelopment plans stalled in 2018 after the council was forced to rerun a contest for the estate regeneration contract over a conflict of interest.

Lambeth has since begun using some of the flats on the estate as temporary accommodation.

Lambeth council said: “Over the past 12 years we have seen significant cuts in government funding, the withdrawal of decent homes grant funding, and enforced rent reductions which have reduced the amount the council is able to borrow to fund refurbishment or retrofit.

“This shortage of funding was the key reason for Lambeth launching an estate regeneration programme – so that we could build better homes for our tenants.

“It was judged that only full rebuilding could both deliver better homes for existing residents and also provide more homes.”

Pictured top: The Fenwick estate, in Clapham (Picture: Robert Firth)