10 NEWS www.southwarknews.co.uk/news Southwark News, Thursday, July 26, 2012

FEATURE - AYLESBURY LEASEHOLDERS

EXCLUSIVE million pound development. originally offered around £100,000 for her two bed- all my money.’” Harry and his wife Ann are among a group of flat in Wolverton 1-59 - only just over half of what The worry of losing their homes, combined with leaseholders in their seventies and eighties being the leaseholders’ own surveyor believe it is worth. the effort of standing up to the council, is taking its By Emma Ailes kicked out by Southwark Council ahead of the The council has since upped its offer to around toll on the elderly residents. Three of them have [email protected] planned demolition of their block in January. £130,000. recently been hospitalised with stress-related The council has just signed a deal with “They're trying to bully us out on the cheap,” she illnesses, including one resident who suffered a 95-YEAR-OLD housing association L&Q for a new says. “When it started, they said we wouldn't be any heart attack. Harry himself was in hospital for three war veteran has development of three higher rise blocks of worse off when we had to move. It’s all been broken days. Abeen left 147 units on the site - which residents have promises. “I started suffering dizzy spells and they had to call hospitalised by stress heard are likely to sell for upwards of “Everytime someone from the council comes an ambulance for me," says the 95-year-old, who after the council £250,000. round, they say ‘clock’s ticking...’ volunteered as a lollipop man until his eighties. announced it was The elderly leaseholders were promised “Then they said to me, ‘you might get something “The first thing the paramedic asked was, ‘are you evicting him from his by Southwark Council that when the time cheaper if you move out of London, Mrs Wood.’ under any stress?’ Walworth home of 43 came to move, they would be offered help, “‘Who said I wanted move out of London?’ I said. “Well, I wake up in the morning thinking about it years. support, and above all, a fair price for their I’m a Bermondsey girl. I’ve lived in this area all my and go to bed at night thinking about it. We just WWII hero Harry Arpino, homes. life. don’t know what’s going to happen to us. The who fought with the Royal But the group, who are already dealing with the “In the end I said, ‘right, pay me my money. I’ll go council haven’t told us anything.” Engineers, has been offered “a pittance” for his two enormous heartache of losing their family homes, and buy a caravan. That stress has recently been brought to a head, bed home on the Aylesbury estate, which the say the reality has been far different. “‘I’d rather do that than go in one of them little with the news that the council has started council want to bulldoze to make way for a multi- Among them is May Wood, 73, who was flats that you’ve been offering us and trying to take Compulsory Purchase Order proceedings to force Southwark News, Thursday, July 26, 2012 www.southwarknews.co.uk/news NEWS 11

FEATURE - AYLESBURY LEASEHOLDERS

What could the leaseholders get for their money?

THE COUNCILhas made offers to their money. money three or four years ago. buy out the Wolverton leaseholders “Nothing, full stop. Even for a small “They’re just not going to be able to at a price of around £130,000 for a one bed flat above a shop on Walworth stay in this area. In Walworth, two bed two bed property and £140,000 for Road, you’d be looking at anywhere ex-council properties start at around a three bed property. between £160-£180,000. £240,000 to £250,000, three beds from The money would fund two years in a “You wouldn’t even get a small one £250-300,000. care home at £850 a week, the average bed for £140,000, anywhere in this “Just down the road in Kenningston, cost of residential care with nursing in area. Even further out in Peckham or fairly standard houses are breaking the London, according to the Care of Bromley, those days are truly gone. £1m barrier. Elderly People Report 2011. “Walworth’s really been coming up “Unfortunately with the Aylesbury We asked Jonathon Lloyd-Ham, over the last three or four years. It’s Estate, we just don’t touch properties manager of local estate agents Field and central London, you’ve got everything there. Everyone knows they’re going to Sons in Kennington, what kind of home on the door step, transport links. You be coming down, so they’re not worth leaseholders might be able to buy for were getting an awful lot more for your anything.”

This fifteen sq ft lock up Alternatively, this second It may not have mains electricity, running in Belgravia with a 44 year hand Mercedes Benz on sale water or a toilet, but apparently at lease could be yours for for £100,000 caravan sleeps £126,000 this one room beach hut in just £100,000. five people. Chislehurst near Dorset is still a bargain. Blair: “no more forgotten people” IN 1969, the first block of the brave It was dubbed “hell’s waiting room” by new world that was the Aylesbury the tabloids – albeit unfairly, as many Estate was completed. The actual residents of the estate argued. Wolverton leaseholders were In 1997, when the estate was still less among the very first residents to than 30 years old, Tony Blair chose it as move in. the place to make his first official Con Whiffin remembers the day: “I’ve speech, declaring he would build a always said it was like a holiday home. Britain where there would be “no more I loved it. We’d come from a little place forgotten people”. funding. in Deacon Street which had no In 2005, the order was finally given to The full regeneration of the Aylesbury bathroom, outside toilet, freezing cold.” demolish the estate and rebuild. But in is still a far off prospect. Southwark But after a period of decline in the 2010 the scheme once again stalled Council is hoping that the ‘80s, the Aylesbury, reputedly Europe’s when the new coalition government redevelopment of the area around “In the end I said, ‘right, pay me largest estate, began to earn a reputation. unexpectedly pulled £180m of PFI Wolverton will kick start it again.

my money. I’ll go and buy a THESE ARE the first images of ‘Havard Gardens’, the new caravan. I’d rather do that than development planned for ‘site seven’, where the leaseholders’ go in one of them little flats that homes currently stand. Housing association L&Q says the development will consist you’ve been offering us and of 75 affordable homes and 72 for outright sale. trying to take all my money.’" Work is scheduled for completion by 2015. See www.harvardgardens.co.uk

the leaseholders out - the second time it has tried to And here lies the crux of the problem for the the option of a part buy / part rent L&Q everything, so they could dictate to us what we do so. The first time round, the leaseholders found leaseholders: what – and who – dictates market property nearby. could afford,” May Wood continues. out from a notice on a lamppost. value? But they argue that these valuations are still “One of our neighbours, Mr Hilmi, who is 82- Councillor Peter John, Leader of Southwark The council says that valuations can legally £40-60,000 short of the worth of their homes – years-old, had paid out in advance for his Council, who is currently in charge of the only take into account ‘market evidence’, and nowhere near enough to buy an equal-sized funeral. They demanded to know where the Aylesbury regeneration portfolio, insists that “no meaning recent sale prices on the same estate. property in the neighbourhood where most of money had gone. It’s disgraceful! We often go leaseholder will be thrown out on the street” - but In February this year, a flat in the Aylesbury's them were born and have lived all their lives. up and find him crying." by the same token warns: “If people think they Foxcote block, a ‘park view’ property with four “They must think we’re idiots,” 63-year-old With the CPO now in progress, that time, it can hang on and we’ll pay whatever they want, bedrooms over three floors, went for £156,000. market trader Tony Beattie says. “These are seems, may have come. However, the they are mistaken.” Another four bed in the imposing Missenden big, spacious homes, ten yards from a bus to the leaseholders will not go down without a fight. “This regeneration has to happen, and that does went for £148,000. city, five minutes from Elephant and Castle and "I think they thought because of our age we'd mean moving leaseholders,” he told the News. Two bed properties on the estate, similar to the tube. We're not stuck somewhere in the just roll over, but we're here, we're fighting, and “Nobody wants to go down the route of arguing those belonging to many of the leaseholders in middle of the estate, we overlook East Street. we’ll take it to tribunal," Tony says. it out in court. We will try to find solutions. Wolverton (or so the council argues) have “Properties being built further out than ours “We’ve lived together here, raised our “One thing we would be willing to look at is recently gone for around the £130,000 mark; are being marketed as “all in Zone One”. But children here, lost family here. It’s more than finding a new independent valuer and both be one beds at around £105,000. when we show that evidence to the council, just four walls. It’s our homes. bound by that. The leaseholders were originally given offers they say ‘oh no…’" "We're not asking for a lot really. Not asking “But people have to understand that we don’t of £100,000 for a two bed, £110,000 for a three “But who is going to pay the shortfall?” for the top of the Shard! Just a fair price for have a limitless pot of money. We can only pay bed. After negotiating long and hard they have “They wanted to know if we had savings, see what we bought and paid for." market value.” seen those offers raised to £130-£140,000, with our bills, pensions, bank account details, Editorial - page 2