Here we document using a timeline, how original promises to Heygate tenants of 500 new social housing units on the redeveloped estate, were reduced over the years to just 82.

2002 Masterplan - 500 social rented homes promised on redeveloped Heygate:
Page 59 of the 2002 Elephant & Castle Regeneration Masterplan

Draft 2003 E&C Supplementary Planning Guidance2003 (Draft SPG Framework for Development) - 28.5% social rented housing, 1200 units at E&C:

2006 Council regeneration magazine2006 (Southwark Council Regeneration Magazine) - 50% affordable housing at E&C:

2007 Council regeneration magazine2007 (Southwark Council Regeneration Magazine) - 40% affordable housing at E&C:

Core Strategy - Council’s strategic planning policy2010 (Southwark Council Core Strategy) - 35% affordable housing at E&C:

2011 public consultation2011 (Lend Lease public consultation) - 25% affordable housing on redeveloped Heygate:

2012 (Lend Lease planning application) - 82 social rented homes on redeveloped Heygate:
Heygate Masterplan Planning application (ref:12/AP/1092) - Housing Statement

Lend Lease’s outline planning application for the Heygate submitted in April 2012, was accompanied by a viability assessment, which determined affordable housing provision across the 5 phases of the scheme. Lend Lease’s Affordable Housing Statement below shows that of the 2,469 new homes in its outline application, just 74 will be social rented:

Phase 1 tenure mixCombined with the 8 social rented homes provided as part of its separate phase one application - Trafalgar Place(235 units in total), that’s 2,704 new homes on the redeveloped Heygate estate of which 82 will be social rented, 198 ‘affordable rent’ and 316 shared ownership homes.

These shared ownership homes have already come under fire for requiring a minimum salary of £57,500; and whilst it has been promised that the ‘affordable rent’ units will only work out at 50% market rent, this currently equates to around twice the current average council rent in Southwark which is £90 pw for a 1-bed flat.

1034 Heygate tenants were ‘decanted’ on the promise that there would be 500 social housing units for those who wished to exercise their ‘right to return’ to the redeveloped estate. Thanks to a decade of broken promises there will now be just 82 homes to accommodate those who wish to return.