“Associations carry out mock consultation instead of real consultation,” he told Housing Today.
Alsop’s plans for Southwark council’s Aylesbury estate were rejected by tenants earlier this month (Housing Today, 10 January).
Three quarters of the tenants voted against transfer of the 2,700-home estate to Faraday Homes, owned by Horizon Housing Group.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment said the blueprint for the estate contained “fundamental flaws and weaknesses”. And anti-transfer activists rubbished the regeneration designs.
A spokeswoman for Horizon said it would not comment further on the episode, following a public slanging match last week in the architecture press. Its director Clare Thomson was quoted as dismissing Alsop’s claims in less than diplomatic terms.
Alsop said this week: “We were not allowed to conduct workshops with tenants. We then worked on the masterplan, but none of the work we did was presented to the community by the housing associations.”
Instead, Horizon’s “clipboard” mentality meant tenants were only asked what kind of kitchens and bathrooms they wanted, he claimed.
“People answer by repeating what they know already. But I think that we can do better than that in social housing,” Alsop said.
But National Housing Federation policy officer Liz Willis said housing associations and local authorities had the “dubious honour of having to remodel estates that received accolades for architectural innovation from the 1960s onwards”.
She explained: “They know that good design is one element of creating homes that people will continue to want to live in for years to come. But as clients, they have to strike the right balance between innovation and risk.”
This week the government confirmed that Southwark council could use £56m New Deal for Communities money for the estate. It had previously been linked to transfer.
Source
Housing Today
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