Council tenant Pete Firmin explains the reality of a long-standing ‘regeneration’ scheme in South Kilburn
I’m the chair of a Tenants and Residents Association in South Kilburn and a resident for 40 years’. I want to speak about the problems for residents – all residents – created by the regeneration of South Kilburn.
The first thing to note is that building work in South Kilburn started in 2004 and is projected by Brent Council to continue until at least 2041. Brent Council also persuaded HS2 to build a vent shaft in the middle of South Kilburn, adding to the noise, dust, heavy vehicles and general disruption of living in a building site for what is going to be nearly 40 years. I don’t know how many of you can imagine that, but we know people who have found it unbearable and have moved away because of the physical and mental stress.
Among what we were promised in the original masterplan for the regeneration agreed by Brent Council was 2 health centres, youth centres,, no new tower blocks, .new homes of equal size and cost and re-housing in South Kilburn for all those whose homes were demolished.
What have we got – several new tower blocks, housing association homes where service charges have risen enormously, flats with flammable cladding, mould, heating failures, and blocks which need to be completely refurbished because they were so badly built. Some blocks have had scaffolding up for years, blocking out light while cladding is removed. Added to which, many of the new flats are smaller than those they replaced.
New contracts have been given by Brent to developers responsible for those failures and to those against whom multiple complaints have been made by residents’.
There is no sign of youth centres, it is rumoured that a health centre will be opening later this year, many years late after its main constituent has had to operate from prefabs for the last few years and whose original doctors left in frustration at the delay).
Blocks are scheduled to be demolished despite residents and sympathetic architects showing infill would be better.
Some residents have been moved several times as their homes are demolished and they are repeatedly `decanted’.
Blocks are built too close to each other. I advise people to take a trip down Albert Road to see a new and an old (lived in) block almost within touching distance of each other).
The scheme has had multiple flaws from the start. Among the first blocks to be demolished and replaced were low rise, architecturally sound ones. Left till much later on have been blocks which nobody could dispute needed demolition and Bison blocks well past the age which they either require remedial work or demolition.
Green space has been lost, plans now require building on Granville rec, which has been built up as a community garden.
Blocks have been gradually emptied, leaving them – entirely predictably- vulnerable to occupation by organised squatters and accompanying anti-social behaviour. That spread from unoccupied flats in blocks being gradually decanted to flats in other blocks including lived in flats in blocks not part of the regeneration scheme. Council officers and police then played catch up to try and deal with this.
The rest of the scheme is currently in limbo, awaiting a developer, but what we can say from Brent’s figures is that there will barely be an increase in social housing in South Kilburn at the end of the day, but a considerable increase in expensive housing for the market, including those bought to let,airbn bs and flats costing over £1 million. So very little addressing Brent’s real housing crisis – that people cannot afford to buy or rent privately and need social housing at social rents.
Throughout all this Brent just repeats that it has won awards for the regeneration from planners and architects. Of course, residents are never asked their opinions when such awards are made. Brent refuses to publicly acknowledge any problems and the only information it puts out to residents of South Kilburn is glossy literature saying how wonderful it all is. In response to a comment that we were promised there were not going to be any more tower blocks, a member of Brent’s regeneration team replied sarcastically “that was never going to happen”. Yet Brent has never come back to residents explaining why we are not seeing some of the things we were promised. There is no forum in which Councillors and Council officers explain what is going on to residents and answer questions. Not surprisingly, residents are cynical about anything Brent says. At least HS2 has recognised the problem of living in a building site and has given those living next to its site occasional `respite’ weekends in hotels.
Brent needs to treat residents differently – it could make a start by being honest about the problems of regeneration.
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