£7m from council, £39m from New Deal for Communities for tenants who rejected transfer
A £46m blueprint for regenerating an estate that overwhelmingly rejected transfer last year has been unveiled in a renewed council effort to meet the decent homes target.

The Aylesbury New Deal for Communities partnership this week published its "manifesto" for injecting much-needed funds into the Aylesbury estate in Southwark, south London.

It outlines a 10-year timetable for "improving the best [and bringing] rapid change to the rest", which will see homes exceed the government's decent homes target. It not clear whether this would include partial stock transfer or an arm's-length management organisation. Southwark council said it would examine delivery options by conducting a survey of tenants.

It is hoped the work, to be delivered by subsidiary the Aylesbury Implementation Task Force, will begin by the end of the year.

The Aylesbury estate's 10,000 residents voted to reject council plans to transfer the 2700 units to Faraday Housing Association in December last year (HT 10 January, page 6). In so doing they sacrificed up to £375m of private funds that would have been used to demolish and rebuild large swathes of run-down housing.

In its manifesto, the Aylesbury NDC says it is prepared to spend £39m regenerating the estate's existing housing, with Southwark council contributing a further £7m.

Mark Weeks, Defend Council Housing national co-ordinator, said: "We are obviously pleased, but why we had to spend a year battling for this I don't know."

The council is also carrying out a best value review of housing management. This aims to address maintenance delays that in some cases have led to tenants having to finance repairs themselves and claim the money back from the council. It has also emerged that the council intends to consider means by which existing tenancy agreements can be used to deal with antisocial behaviour.

Meanwhile, Lord Victor Adebowale has been appointed as chair of the partnership board.

n A survey conducted for Southwark council by pollster MORI showed few Aylesbury estate tenants were aware of the work of campaigners Defend Council Housing when they rejected transfer, Housing Today understands.

Apparently residents were more concerned by fears that, as housing association tenants, they would not have the same security of tenure and rents could fluctuate. Weeks said: "There was a misunderstanding about what we are. We help the community organise itself and don't necessarily put our name to it."