While most of Silwood estate lies in Lewisham, part of the estate is situated in Southwark.

This Committee report confirms that Southwark sold its part of the Silwood estate (site 4B) to Notting Hill Housing Group for an undisclosed sum in 2009. Site 4B was home to Gillam House pictured below, which comprised 57 council flats and 6 council-leasehold flats.

Land registry documents show that the Council sold the land to Notting Hill and its development partner Higgins Homes for the sum of just £2.1 million.

The Land Registry documents and the committee report both confirmed that the Council had signed an ‘overage’ agreement as part of the deal. This means that it would supposedly receive a share of the profits once the new development was complete.

We made an FOI request asking how much overage (if any) the Council received from the agreement.

Gillam House - Silwood estate in Bermondsey

Gillam House pre-demolition

The officer’s report for Notting Hill’s planning application for site 4B, confirmed that the block would be replaced by 127 new homes of which 22 would be social rented.

Officer’s report for the Silwood estate redevelopment

However, the Section 106 legal agreement signed with Notting Hill defines social rent such that it includes affordable rent (i.e. up to 80% market rent).

Silwood redevelopment S106 agreement

We wrote to Notting Hill asking whether these 22 units were currently being let at social rents or affordable rent. They didn’t reply and have not responded to follow up requests.