Southwark council has met with nine housing associations to discuss ways to revive the flagging regeneration of Elephant & Castle in south-east London.
It is the latest attempt by the council to get the £1.5bn project back on track. The first task is to rehouse the tenants of the Heygate estate, the largest of the housing blocks in the regeneration area.

In a letter to the registered social landlords, the council said: "The main purpose of the meeting is to brief housing associations on plans to redevelop Elephant & Castle, outlining current thinking about providing new affordable homes to replace Heygate."

It goes on to say that it is interested in selecting partner organisations for the work and is "keen to forge the sort of partnerships that will be necessary to take it forward".

The letter was signed by David Shiress, Southwark's principal project officer. The housing associations invited to the meeting, held last week, were South London Family, Hyde, Hexagon, Wandle, Metropolitan, Peabody, Guinness, Presentation and London & Quadrant.

We are keen to forge partnerships to take the regeneration forward

David Shiress, Southwark council

The letter also invited tenant groups to attend the meeting.

The council previously sought the advice of housing associations in the immediate aftermath of the spectacular collapse of its partnership with preferred developer Southwark Land Regeneration. Nothing concrete was agreed at the time of the collapse, although Southwark made it clear that it was interested in appointing a consortium of RSLs to oversee renewal of the Heygate estate.

Source

Housing Today