Residents vote for £565m redevelopment of 1998 homes through community-led housing association

Residents living on the Clapham Park Estate in south London have voted yes to the stock transfer and redevelopment of nearly 2000 council homes.

Resident-led regeneration organisation, the Clapham Park Project (CPP), is the first body to agree a stock transfer under the government’s New Deal for Communities programme. Half the CPP’s £56m budget will be invested in the redevelopment work.

The ballot took place between 24 February and 24 March. Seventy-eight per cent of eligible residents voted. In total, 59.3% of tenants and 62.8% of leaseholders voted yes.

The yes vote is a boost to the ODPM’s strategy of using stock transfer to raise social housing to the Decent Homes standard. More ballots are currently in preparation in other NDC areas.

The stock transfer covers all 1998 council homes within the NDC area, which borders Brixton and Streatham and suffers from high unemployment rates. The ownership and management of residents’ homes will be transferred from the London Borough of Lambeth to Clapham Park Homes, a new community-led housing association, in March 2006. Clapham Park Homes will be part of the Metropolitan Housing Trust.

The new association will spend £455m demolishing and rebuilding just under half the existing council homes, and on building shared ownership and private homes for sale. Money generated from the sale and rental of these homes will fund an £82m refurbishment programme for the remaining homes.

Residents will also benefit from a commercial centre, library, healthy living centre, primary school, youth centre and central park.

CPP has worked with residents since 2001 on a masterplan proposal to regenerate the area. Oliver Higgins, chairman of CPP and a resident of the Clapham Park Estate, said: “I am delighted that residents have voted yes to the stock transfer. This is an endorsement of local residents’ belief that they can play a significant role in the transformation of their community into an area that they can be proud of.”

Owen Thompson, CPP chief executive, said: “Our masterplan is one of the finest examples of community regeneration anywhere in the country. It will transform Clapham Park into one of London’s most desirable areas with first-class housing, education, leisure and employment opportunities.”