Could estate that time forgot finally be getting the TLC it needs?

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

A new scheme to transform a huge estate that has been ‘left to rot’ have been put forward, more than a decade after its regeneration was first agreed.

Wandsworth council has published revised proposals to revamp the Alton Estate, in Roehampton, with more than double the affordable homes previously proposed and less demolition of buildings.

The new masterplan to regenerate the estate proposes more than 650 new homes, more shops, a replacement library and a youth centre.

The council is set to appoint a team to develop the design of the masterplan over the next year in consultation with residents, who will then vote on it in a ballot.

The council’s old Conservative administration originally agreed to regenerate the estate in 2012 and submitted a planning application in 2019, which was approved in 2022.

It would have seen 288 homes on the estate demolished and replaced, with 1,108 new homes built in total – including 261, or 24 per cent, affordable homes.

But the scheme was pulled before building had begun when Labour took control of the authority for the first time in 44 years in 2022, as the new administration said it did not include enough affordable homes.

The council went back to the drawing board to put together revised proposals, which were published ahead of the authority’s housing committee meeting this week.

The new masterplan instead proposes 58 per cent affordable housing – including a net addition of 130 council homes, compared to a net loss of one in the previous scheme. A total of 178 existing homes would be demolished under the revised proposals, as the council aims to keep as many of the existing homes as possible.

The committee approved plans to press ahead with developing the revised proposals, along with making early improvements to the estate, on July 17.

Pictured top: An empty block of flats at the entrance to the Alton Estate (Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga)