If you have tried to buy or even rent a property in this area, then I am sure you know how hard it is to find something you want and can afford.
The problem is easy to define but the solution is more complex. Development negotiations are taking too long, rules don’t incentivise construction and land (often owned by TfL, GLA, NHS or local councils) is not being made available.
If we are to solve this problem we need to be more ambitious.
If Londoners are to get the homes they need then we need to incentivise developers to build on land they own, open up public sector land for development and design homes local people want to live in such as those championed by the organisation Create Streets.
We also need to look at new ways to buy a home, such as rent to buy or shared ownership schemes or community land trusts.
We need to listen to what developers, councils and your readers have to say in 2015 if we are to meet the demands of Londoners, who want a home of their own.
Syed Kamall, MEP for London
its now seven years after being forced to sell my three bed home on the Heygate back to Southwark Council for a paltry sum.Im now living fifteen miles out of London in a two bed terrace. I had to find an extra £50,000 to secure this property. So you can imagine how gutting it is toi get emails from Land Lease offering me to purchase a one bed flat at three times the price Southwark paid me! At the end of the day how many residents/tenants removed from the Heygate have benefited from this regeneration?
Hello Terence
I read through freedom of information 2 leaseholders lost their properties to forfeiture in the local buy buy back demolition so they got nothing at all. I think it was your block but it may have been Aylesbury anyway same difference, same area, I am waiting to find out the reason for the breach and whether the forfeitures were legal at all.
There is a list of the flats sold and the prices paid to leaseholders on the “What do they know” website in the local area so the answer to your question is in that information. Some people achieved very substantial, yummy prices indeed so have a look and ask London Borough Southwark why the prices varied. You can find out what you want to under Freedom of Information sites.
Your two bedroom terrace sounds really good to me, 15 miles out only , that’s good, Terence,and it is substantially more that the people who lost everything to forfeiture. Sounds to me like you done good, Terence. Is it the area and the people you miss?