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16 February 2015
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has agreed the principles it should aspire to when it comes to compensating and rehousing tenants and leaseholders affected by regeneration schemes on Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation managed estates. The principles were developed as part of ongoing planning for the redevelopment of the Council Offices at Pembroke Road and the Council will now seek to apply them to any future schemes. Essentially, Kensington and Chelsea will only redevelop a Council estate if it is possible to rehouse all existing tenants in better homes in the new development or in the nearby area (unless, of course, they choose to move elsewhere). This commitment is in addition to all the usual statutory compensation and disturbance allowances. In addition the Council will try to offer all resident leaseholders on such an estate access to a shared equity scheme of the kind being piloted at Pembroke Road, to enable them to buy a home in a new development, even if it is worth more than their original home. This offer will depend on the viability of each regeneration project, but would also be in addition to all statutory compensation and disturbance allowances. These new commitments mean that existing communities would be kept together if and when regeneration projects go ahead, rather than being displaced and dispersed as happened in some historic examples. Explaining the principles behind these commitments Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration, said: “Despite austerity the Council still has many ambitions for the future of this borough. “One of the most important is housing and the regeneration of some Council estates. We want the best possible homes for our existing and future tenants. We want more affordable homes, especially for those on low to middle incomes, who have been squeezed out of the private market but are ineligible for social rented housing. We want to preserve and strengthen our mixed communities that have made Kensington and Chelsea such an attractive place to live for people of all backgrounds. We want to tackle the causes of deprivation in some of our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. And we want to build new homes that will be considered beautiful and desirable for generations to come. “This is all achievable and realistic, thanks to long years of careful financial stewardship by the Council and because of the underlying value and comparatively low densities of Council-owned land and housing. “But this regeneration is something we want to do working with residents and these new commitments are all about showing tenants and leaseholders that we are serious about that.”