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Brokenshire rejects Clarion’s appeal against William Sutton Estate decision

Housing secretary James Brokenshire has dismissed Clarion Housing Group’s appeal against a council decision to reject its plans to regenerate a historic estate in Chelsea.

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James Brokenshire, housing secretary  (picture: UK Parliament)
James Brokenshire, housing secretary (picture: UK Parliament)
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Brokenshire rejects Clarion’s appeal against Sutton Estate decision #ukhousing

In a decision letter published yesterday, Mr Brokenshire agreed with Kensington and Chelsea Council that Clarion’s intentions for the William Sutton Estate would result in an unacceptable loss of social housing.

Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association with around 125,000 homes, had planned to demolish 383 flats on the estate and replace them with 343 new homes, including 106 for market sale.

The estate – which has sat largely empty since 2016 while Clarion developed regeneration plans – attracted national media attention in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in summer 2017, after radio station LBC suggested it could be used to house survivors of the disaster.

In October, Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader at Kensington and Chelsea Council, told Inside Housing that Clarion’s plans for the estate were “morally” wrong.


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The planning inspector who considered Clarion’s appeal recommended permission be refused.

Mr Brokenshire backed the inspector and said the proposed regeneration “fails to satisfy the [council’s] policy aims of no net loss of social housing and maximum reasonable provision”.

Clarion had argued that as 159 homes on the estate are empty and boarded up, they should not be counted as existing social rented housing.

However the inspector rejected this view, concluding that vacancies “are a common manifestation of estate renewal”.

The inspector said Clarion’s “choice not to commit expenditure on improvements to the estate is not considered to be a sound planning reason for not counting the estate as social rented floorspace”.

He added that to do so “would be an incentive for landowners to run down social housing estates to reduce social housing replacement policy requirements”.

Mr Brokenshire’s letter agreed that “the vacation of a property by a registered provider as a preliminary step towards estate renewal cannot reasonably be a basis for disregarding that floorspace for the purposes of affordable housing policy”.

Clarion’s rejected plans would represent a 14% reduction in social rented housing floorspace at the William Sutton Estate, including empty homes.

A revised planning application has been submitted by Clarion, but as it was submitted after the appeal process was underway it has not been considered by Mr Brokenshire.

The planning inspector noted that the revised plan “reflects the maximum reasonable level of affordable housing”.

Clarion has six weeks to challenge the housing secretary’s decision in the High Court.

Kensington and Chelsea Council’s Mr Taylor-Smith said: “I have said previously that I felt very strongly that Clarion’s original proposal to knock down and redevelop this beautiful estate with the loss of social housing units was wrong and would surely fly in the face of the intentions of William Sutton, the philanthropist who bequeathed this estate to Clarion in trust on behalf of people who need housing in this borough.

“I now extend my hand to Clarion in the hope we can close this chapter and move on, together, to find a way to refurbish the estate to provide affordable housing for those who need it.

“I recognise this is going to be a challenge. But I assure Clarion that this council will listen and we will find a way to help them deliver decent housing in genuine partnership.”

A spokesman for Clarion said the organisation was disappointed at the decision and it meant the future of the William Sutton Estate was now uncertain.

He said: “Our proposal provided all 203 current social housing residents with a new home and 67 additional homes for social rent for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC).

“We do welcome the fact that secretary of state recognised that redevelopment of the estate is the ‘only feasible option’ and emphatically rejected the alternative proposal presented by a pressure group.

“We continue to believe that our revised proposal for development would secure the future of social housing in this part of Chelsea. The 270 homes for social rent would make a huge difference to the community, especially as RBKC has completed an average of just 61 homes for social rent across the borough every year since 2014.

“We will consider our position and announce our intention in the new year.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan said: “I am very pleased the Secretary of State has listened to what I and many local campaigners have been calling for, and has blocked the ill-considered plans to regenerate the Sutton Estate.

“As we have made clear right from the start, Clarion’s proposals were totally unacceptable as they would have seen a loss of social housing.”

Update: at 09.46am 20/12/18 a comment from Sadiq Khan was added to the story

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