Southwark council is to carry out a piecemeal sale of one of the
In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Southwark said that “commercial, legal and procurement risks” meant it could not proceed with using the HCA’s developer panel to deliver the 5,000-home Aylesbury Estate redevelopment in Elephant & Castle, SE17.
Southwark instead intends to bring a series of land transfer deals to market, starting with two sites earmarked for 165 and 112 homes respectively.
It blamed the U-turn on “viability” problems with the HCA’s developer panel, which is made up of nine private housebuilders and seven construction companies but only one registered social landlord.
It said that “the lack of registered social landlords available (either on the HCA Delivery Partner Panel or through link-ups with HCA DPP members)” meant that “the panel may not be able to deliver a value-for-money solution to the council”.
Southwark also said that it did not have the resources for “negotiating complex project documentation with developers due to the restricted nature of the procurement of the HCA DPP”.
Councillor Fiona Colley said that a land transfer would be “far faster” than the alternative, an EU public procurement.
Southwark believes that speed is “critical” if it is to hang on to vital bridging funding which was set aside by the HCA in February, and which it fears is now at risk because of government cuts and policy changes on social housing.
It adds: “Informal discussions indicate that the sooner a submission is made, the better its chance of securing funding.”
Half of the 5,000 homes in the £2.5bn Aylesbury scheme will be for rent and the rest for sale or shared equity.
paul.norman@estatesgazette.com
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