South Kilburn Masterplan (The Guardian)
Guest post by a South Kilburn resident
Report of South Kilburn Regeneration meeting held on the 18th September 2024.
The council announced that they have not appointed a sole developer yet for all the remaining sites of the South Kilburn Regeneration programne.
Currently there are 3 sites being developed with:
(1) 46 social homes for rent out of a total of 328 homes at The Peel site
(2) 72 social homes for rent out of a total of 209 at the NWCC`sit
(3) 18 homes for social rent at the Granville/Carton site but I do not know the total number of remaining homes.
(NWCC is Neville, Winstanley, the Carlton Centre and some of Carlton House).
The South Kilburn Promise was to provide a 50\50 ratio of social homes to other tenures but at these 3 sites the numbers of social homes has fallen way below the 50% ratio. Also the overall aim of the South Kilburn regeneration is to increase the number of social homes in South Kilburn by 800 by the end of the programm but this target may not be achieved either.
The next site to be developed will be The Hereford & Exeter site but not until 2026 as the council are still discussing with the GLA over funding issues and it would also need the sole developer to be appointed to develop the site.`
All the remaining sites are waiting to go to planning with the next one being The CCZ site being submitted in 2025. (CCZ is Craik, Crone & Zangwill House.)
Finally, there are still 284 tenants waiting for a new home in South Kilburn.
The council also reported on anti- social behaviour issues at Unity Place which only opened in 2019. They have appointed two Block Champions to monitor Unity Place, which has over 300 tenants and leaseholders living there.
Before the first Masterplan was published in 2004 the council said that developing the South Kilburn estate would eradicate all the anti-social behavour elements living there at the time. Something seems to have gone wrong as antisocial behaviour issues are rampant across the estate.
Appointing unpaid tenants as Block Champions to deal with all the issues affecting South Kilburn blocks will not solve the problem and what we need is more police to visit the estate, along with council safety teams on a regular basis.
This shows the South Kilburn regeneration really is falling apart. The promises made about new social housing etc were always inadequate, but Brent looks extremely unlikely to fulfil even them. The `Block Champions' scheme is not only incapable of dealing with the problems (substituting for proper action by police and Council), as the writer says, but is also the latest in a long line of actions taken by Council Officers to undermine the role of elected Tenants and Residents Associations, by handpicking who they want.
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