Colville Estate tenants in Hoxton regeneration row

Colville Estate residents Iris Wynter, Gulsan Biyhlu, Jenny Hutchinson and Naoko Kosuge. Photograph: Josh Loeb

Longtime residents of a Hoxton housing block facing the wrecking ball say regeneration plans are forcing them from the area.

Hackney Council wants to knock down Felton House in Branch Place, part of the Colville Estate, where there are plans to pay for upgrades to social housing through the sale of expensive accommodation sold privately.

The estate currently contains just over 400 homes and the council wants to replace these with a larger, high rise housing complex made up of around 900 flats.

A dozen residents, supported by the Conservative councillor Linda Kelly, took a deputation to the Town Hall last month (June) saying assured tenancy rights and needs were being ignored by housing chiefs and leaseholders were being offered a raw deal.

Jenny Hutchinson, who has lived in Felton House for 38 years, said accommodation the council had offered to transfer her and others to did not compare with their current homes.

She said: “We’ve got ground floor flats and gardens. We’ve spent 30-odd years looking after our gardens, which we fought for, and we’ve saved the council thousands over the years in maintenance.

“Now they are expecting us not to have like for like. I’ve got a carp pond in my garden and I’ve got hundreds of pounds worth of plants. I’m not leaving that there for it to be demolished.

“The council can sooner give away properties to squatters than they can find terraced housing for us.”

She said the council plans were too high-density, adding: “They are packing too many people in. They wouldn’t do it in some of the nice areas in Stoke Newington.”

And she said leaseholders had a much greater task ahead of them, what with “unfair valuations, finding somewhere to live and the cost should they want to return to the new Colville.”

Jean Welton, who has a ground floor flat in Fenton House and a garden she has lovingly tended to during her 35 years there, said she wanted to remain a council tenant but had been offered a “pokey” basement flat in a housing association complex.

Leaseholders described the amount of money they had been offered by the council as “insulting”.

One said: “All that I and all the other leaseholders want is the right amount for our flats. Not more, not less.”

Reading the deputation at the full council meeting on 27 June, Cllr Kelly said residents and leaseholders were “still in a high state of anxiety about what is happening to them and the state of the regeneration programme on the Colville Estate”.

Cllr Karen Alcock, Deputy Mayor of Hackney, said: “Providing modern and much-needed family homes at Colville to help relieve overcrowding is a key priority for the Council.

“After consulting extensively with residents throughout the process a petition in support of the masterplan was submitted to the borough’s planning committee by residents
last year.

“Tenants will be offered new homes in accordance with their housing needs, and designs ensure that all homes have a balcony, garden or a roof terrace.

“Leaseholders have been offered the opportunity to remain on the estate through a range of options including leasehold swap, leasehold swap with shared equity and shared ownership.”