Complete control

Abstract

Regeneration has for several years been the favoured term of developers and local authorities for house building programmes in London. Regeneration promises new homes in rejuvenated neighbourhoods. This article tells of how such promises were instead used to lever the residents of one south London council estate, the Heygate, from their homes, leaving the benefits of regeneration for the more affluent to enjoy. It is also a case study of how private developers profit from regeneration, without building homes that most people could actually afford to either rent or buy, and how they evade a local authority's planning requirements for affordable housing by means of secret financial reports, so-called ‘viability assessments’. Finally it briefly recounts how some local communities are starting to challenge this so-far unchallenged power that puts developer profit above the need for truly affordable housing.