THE FINAL phase of a major overhaul of the borough’s largest social housing estate was approved last week.

It was the last part of a £100million scheme to revamp Rayners Lane Estate in South Harrow by Home Group, the housing association behind the project. It saw permission granted by Harrow Council’s planning committee on Thursday.

The four existing vacant Resiform blocks of flats, built in Eliot Drive in the 1960s, will be replaced with a mix of 82 houses and flats within two, three and four storey buildings while there are also plans for a communal open space.

It will provide five two-bed houses, 27 three-bed houses, 13 one bedroom flats and 37 two bedroom flats.

Having originally been built in the 1960s, the estate was in desperate need of an overhaul, resulting in the ambitious multi-million pound masterplan put forward more than 10 years ago.

The regeneration scheme proposed the demolition of the poor quality buildings and replacing them with a mix of homes for rent and sale with energy efficient homes with private gardens.

Despite revisions being made to the plans in 2006, setting back the project, by 2014, Home Group will have supplied 450 properties for rent and over 300 properties for sale that are used to cross-subsidise the affordable homes.

The scheme also incorporates a comprehensive range of community facilities, including new shops, public open spaces and a state-of-the-art community centre.

As part of the latest application, the mini-roundabout on Rayners Lane will also be removed, to help ease congestion, while the proposed flats will have 90 car parking spaces across the development.

The go ahead for the final stage follows the opening of the Spectrum development, another series of energy efficient homes on the estate, earlier this year.

Following the unveiling, Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas praised the regeneration for ‘transforming the lives of every family in the area’.