Redeveloping London’s local authority housing estates at much higher densities could create an additional 360,000 homes, according to a report produced by property consultant Savills for the Cabinet Office.
The report has been released as prime minister David Cameron announced the government’s pledge to “radically transform” 100 of the country’s worst sink estates.
Entitled Completing London’s Streets, the report compares two methods of redeveloping social housing estates in London: replacing the existing site with new blocks and towers in a similar layout but higher density, and reintegrating the estates into the surrounding urban fabric by developing former open space on estates.
Savills has named the latter strategy “complete streets”.
The report estimates that approximately 1,750 hectares of London’s 8,500 hectares of local authority housing estates might be capable of this type of regeneration with the potential to provide somewhere between 190,000 and 500,000 homes. This represents an increase over the number of existing homes of between 54,000 and 360,000.
Existing and potential street patterns: figure ground for a hypothetical local authority estate
The analysis assumed that every existing resident would be rehoused under the same terms on the new streets.
Many of London’s local authority housing estates were built at a time when London was depopulating, so were not built at optimum density.
The report estimates that, had they been built in the 1960s and 1970s to the same density as their “complete streets” strategy, they would have housed a further 480,000 households.
But, the report argues, low density and open spaces have not equated to a higher quality of place in the majority of cases.
According to Savills, the “complete street” approach creates opportunities for mixed use development and is fully integrated into the broader city, it also creates greater life chances and employment opportunities for residents.
Award winning Myatts Fields – new housing developed as Complete Streets
Yolande Barnes, the Savills research director who led the analysis, said: “The results were stark, particularly the ability not only to improve density but also the resulting quality of place and value.
“Moreover, the complete streets combination of terraced houses, mid-rise mansion blocks and refurbished towers integrated into a human-scale streetscape, actually costs less to build than new high-mass blocks in open space. A ‘complete street’ neighbourhood will create a better, more desirable place to live and a better asset for the local authority or housing association land owners than contemporary regeneration practices.
“These findings should have significant resonance for both public land owners and the housing industry because of the profound difference in the end asset value of the two different types of neighbourhood that can be created,” she concludes.
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