Some residents on a huge South London estate that’s being bulldozed and rebuilt could move into ‘better’ homes years earlier than originally expected. The 832-home Cambridge Road Estate in Norbiton is being knocked down in phases to deliver 2,170 new homes in a scheme led by Kingston Council and developer Countryside Partnerships.
Leaseholders and freeholders on the 1960s and 1970s estate are set to have the chance to move into new homes built in the earlier phases of the regeneration as an ‘excess’ is likely to be available. Kingston Council has found there will be more properties available under shared equity and shared ownership in the first two phases of the scheme than there is demand from homeowners who have first choice.
The council’s place committee approved plans to offer the 54 eligible leaseholders and freeholders in phases four and five the chance to move into these excess properties on February 8. A report by council officers said these residents will have the “potential opportunity to move many years earlier than anticipated” into “better-quality homes”.
It said homes acquired by the authority under this scheme could be used as temporary accommodation to “improve the living conditions of homeless households and ease the financial burden to the council of nightly paid accommodation”.
Lib Dem councillor Emily Davey said: “[For] the people in later phases, we’ve got some of those shared equity, shared ownership properties available in the earlier phase which is great because I’ve had people come to me and say look I would like to move earlier, is it possible? Or my mum’s in her late 70s, 80s, if she’s got to wait till the end we’re going to be moving her in her 90s and we’re worried about that, could we move her early? Well… this is a great opportunity.”
Expressions of interest in the excess homes will be prioritised on a phase-by-phase basis and allocated according to the freeholder and leaseholder decant policy which the council approved on September 7, 2017.
Leaseholders and freeholders can buy a new home on the estate or elsewhere under shared equity or shared ownership agreements, according to the council’s landlord offer. The cash put into the new home bought on a shared equity basis will be all of the funds from the sale of the previous home and any mortgage, while the council will put in the rest of the money to buy it. Those who buy a new home on a shared ownership basis will part-own the home and pay rent to the council on the rest of it.
It was also announced in January the estate will have 104 more council homes in the first phase of the regeneration than originally planned due to extra funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA). It means the estate will provide 871 new council homes overall once complete, compared to the 767 initially proposed, which is 218 more than on the original estate.
Images one and two: Cambridge Road Estate, Norbiton. Credit: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
