Housing Regeneration – Renewing the Legacy in Kensington and
Chelsea
Following on from our Housing Stock Options Review, the Council
has decided to look into the potential to regenerate some areas of
the Royal Borough, to renew the legacy in Kensington and Chelsea,
and maintain our housing stock in good order into the future. We
are also reviewing value for money in the services we provide, and
how we can be smarter with the Council’s assets.
What is it?
Housing regeneration, sometimes also called housing renewal, is
the process of renewing and upgrading the social housing stock in
the Royal Borough. Many of the Council and Housing
Association homes in Royal Borough were built many decades ago, and
are beginning to show signs of wear and tear that sometimes cannot
just be repaired.
Plans may be developed for the demolition of housing blocks or
housing estates, to replace them with better quality, more modern
homes that improve the environment and quality of life for
residents. This will be done with agreement from residents and the
Council.
Sometimes regeneration can mean much smaller scale works too,
finding opportunities to increase the amount of housing available
by using areas of existing estates and blocks more creatively.
What’s happening?
The Wornington Green Estate, owned by
Kensington Housing Trust, received planning consent from the
Council for a major regeneration on 2 March 2010. This
scheme will take 12 years to achieve a major change to the north
end of Portobello Road and Wornington Road, providing many more
homes in the borough, and an opportunity to improve the local park
and play facilities. You can find out more about this project on
the Wornington Green Estate
website (opens link in new window). Further
information is available about the impact of the redevelopment of
Wornington Green on the Venture Centre.
Elm Park Gardens is an example of a much
smaller scale scheme, where the Council has upgraded basement areas
in existing Council blocks, and created new homes, some for sale
and some for rent, either to Council tenants or to local
workers. Work was completed in 2011.
The Silchester Estate is owned by the Council,
and has a row of garages which have been earmarked for demolition
and will be replaced with at least 63 homes, both rented and shared
ownership. The development will be carried out by a partner
housing association, and we have set up separate Silchester
regeneration pages on this site to provide more detailed
information on what is happening.
The Elkstone Road site in front of Trellick
Tower is currently being used as a temporary coach park.
However we plan to develop the area in the long term, along with
the disused garage space at the base of Trellick Tower, in order to
invest and improve the area. A residents’ opinion survey has
been carried out regarding the future of this site, to help inform
the development of plans, and the Council will be reporting back to
residents on the outcome of this survey in due course.
For more information please contact the Strategy and
Regeneration Team, The Town Hall, Hornton Street, W8 7NX. Tel:
020 7361 3014