Vast parts of North Kensington estate could be demolished as part of council plans to improve housing in the area.
It is one of three options Kensington and Chelsea Council will examine following feedback from a feasibility study looking to improve the homes of people living on Silchester Estate in Lockton Road.
It found the “potential to provide new homes is so great that there must be further investigations”, and will now pursue three options - leaving things as they are; refurbishing existing blocks and infilling between them to create new homes where possible; or a range of options for redevelopment that could include the demolition of Silchester’s four tower blocks and their replacement with mid-rise buildings.
The study identified opportunities to build hundreds of new affordable and private sector homes and explored ways the Silchester neighbourhood might be remodelled in order to restore traditional street patterns, design-out antisocial behaviour, improve public health and create new opportunities for local people.
The council has already said that in the case of a full redevelopment that all existing secure tenants will have the option to remain in the area, on the same terms and conditions as their current homes.
And following a Cabinet meeting on May 26, it confirmed that in the event of redevelopment it would also offer resident leaseholders and freeholders the opportunity to acquire a shared equity stake in a new property on the redevelopment.
The Silchester study is part of the council’s response to the housing crisis and its plans to regenerate North Kensington - and correct what it describes as “architectural errors of the past”.
Rock Feilding-Mellen, cabinet member for housing, property and regeneration said: “If we are serious about providing new homes, then we have to look at neighbourhoods like Silchester that were built at low density.
“With good design it might well be possible to accommodate many hundreds of new homes of much higher quality and still end up with better open space and a hugely improved townscape.
“But one thing is certain already. If the redevelopment option does end up being chosen, we are determined that the estate’s existing residents – council tenants and leaseholders – will be able to continue living there.”
Jo Poole, the secretary of the Silchester Residents Association, had previously described the proposal to demolish and rebuild as the “nuclear option”.
Speaking to getwestlondon in March, she said many buildings were not in need to replacing, and that surveyors and architects to look at the buildings and implement a gradual change.
She said: “We’re really concerned that this long standing community will disperse and go. There are a lot of people living here in their 70s or so, and they’re going to have to move somewhere else or spend the rest of their days in a building site. We want something that retains the community spirit.”
The council will now appoint architects and undertake further consultations with the community.
The Green Party’s London Assembly candidate for West Central London Jennifer Nadel and Mayoral candidate Sian Berry also visited the estate in the run-up to the May 5 elections.
