Launched in June as the London development industry sprang slowly back to life after its slowdown during Covid19 Lockdown, the new Estatewatch online resource details over 35,000 homes on more than 100 London estates which are at risk of demolition.

Take a look at this great new resource at http://EstateWatch.London 

The website aims to help communities fight their corner and describes itself as a platform to provide resources for tenants and residents undergoing estate regeneration and to scrutinise and hold to account the Mayor of London and the London Boroughs.

Beyond our work on London housing supply and the drivers creating a worsening housing crisis in the capital, major amongst which is the shortage of social rent housing. Action on Empty Homes interest in these sorts of large-scale redevelopment projects springs from the frequent creation of large numbers of long-term empty homes which are a typical part of such projects.

This is an almost inevitable part of the process of re-developing a fully occupied estate by demolition and replacement with new housing, which first requires the removal of existing tenants and leaseholders; often a very lengthy process, sometimes stretching over several years.

A further element of such projects can be the creation of large numbers of poorly maintained homes let on insecure tenancies, or used as Temporary Accommodation for homeless families in the interim, while awaiting demolition. Typically these will be characterised by poor maintenance and services, since there will be a reluctance to spend significant sums on maintaining homes which are shortly to be demolished. The fact that the poor standard and maintenance requirements of the homes are often a part of the justification offered for demolition, raises obvious questions about this approach.