Justice and liveability in social housing regeneration

Abstract

Post-war council estates in the UK - due to issues in built quality, maintenance, design and an accumulation of social problems - have been object to various regeneration initiatives over the past decades. The latest market-led regeneration wave, however, is controversially and heatedly discussed. Council estates are densified and developed into mixed communities with the introduction of market tenure. Particularly in the context of London’s housing crisis, this approach is criticised to prioritise market demands over the needs of the original inhabitants and cause a loss of much needed genuinely affordable housing. The aim of this research is therefore to contribute to the search of methods to achieve more socially balanced development within these regeneration processes in London – in particular, to explore the role planning and design can play to ensure that the needs of lower income groups are met. The main evaluation criteria are the provision of genuinely affordable housing, meaningful resident engagement and design that responds to the various needs within mixed communities. A set of recommendations is developed based on the analysis of London’s planning and policy framework and two differing case studies: the controversial Heygate Estate/Elephant&Castle development and the infill approach of the Dover Court Estate regeneration. What is more, lessons are drawn from regeneration approaches in Amsterdam and Vienna, two cities well known for housing. The research revealed that estate regeneration is dependent on multiple economic, political and social factors. In London, central government directives including housing policy, funding allocation and regulation of local authorities play a decisive role in how individual regeneration schemes can be approached. At the same time, planning tasks such as a thorough decision making process, meaningful resident engagement, detailed and transparent monitoring as well as effective negotiation with the private sector can be supported on the city-wide or local level. Therefore, the proposal does not only include process and design recommendations, but also institutional capacity building strategies.