Actor and comedian Eddie Izzard has lent his support to a campaign to prevent the redevelopment of a Chelsea housing estate, (Tom Michael writes).

The Sutton Estate on Cale Street has been declared unfit for purpose by Affinity Sutton , the housing association which owns it. It has proposed to partially demolish the historic dwellings and replace them with new properties which it says will represent ‘an improved living environment’ for tenants.

But many residents are fighting its plans which propose selling off between 25 and 50 per cent of the redeveloped estate. They are backed by comic legend Eddie Izzard who called the proposals ‘un-British’.Speaking in a communal area of the estate on Friday shortly before he performed a benefit gig to raise money for the residents’ campaign, he said the plans amounted to ‘social cleansing’ and were symptomatic of a wider problem across the capital.

He said: “London is crying out for affordable housing and this is not the way to do it. The prices of houses are going up and up into stratospheric levels so that no young people and no people on low incomes can afford to live here. I think that is wrong, that is not good for the lifeblood of London.”

He and the other campaigners are particularly critical of the plans for an entirely private block, complete with a walled garden for the exclusive use of its residents, saying the proposals will damage the sense of community in the area. Affinity Sutton says the partial sale of the estate is necessary in order to fund the redevelopment and that all current tenants will be re­housed on site.

Members of Save the Sutton Estate accused the housing association of keeping flats empty in order to lend credibility to this claim in what campaign organiser Andrew Barshall called ‘a cynical, opportunistic move’.

An Affinity Sutton spokeswoman insisted all current tenants will be rehoused within the redeveloped estate and all will retain security of tenancy and continue to pay rents at the Government’s target rent formula. She claimed the new homes will be bigger and built to higher standards but the only way to afford these benefits is to sell off about a quarter of the new homes.

She added: “We have positively engaged tenants and the wider community in the public consultation process. Over 90 tenants attended our last consultation event in June at which the majority of feedback received supported the proposals. Twenty tenants volunteered to join our redevelopment steering group and we will work closely with this group to develop the detail of the scheme and keep tenants informed on progress.”

An official application for planning permission is set to be made to the council in October, and organisers have urged the public to write to MP Greg Hands to show their opposition, as well as sign their online petition at www.savethesuttonestate.co.uk