De Beauvoir Estate

We think that at 4 sites on the De Beauvoir Estate, we can redevelop Council depots, garages and temporary sites to build more than 100 new homes. They are:

• the depot located at the corner of Downham Road and Southgate Road
• 81 Downham Road, currently the temporary site of Hackney New Primary School
• Balmes Road podium garages
• the depot located at the corner of Downham Road and De Beauvoir Road

We’re also considering whether by demolishing some other existing buildings, we could replace them into more than 100 further homes, plus a new Neighbourhood Housing Office, local shops and workspace in one coordinated development.

This could include demolishing:

• the Queensbridge and De Beauvoir Neighbourhood Housing Office at 31 De Beauvoir Road
• the Hackney Council depot on Balmes Road
• Trinity Court
• commercial units at 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 De Beauvoir Road and 57, 59, 61, 63 and 65 Downham Road

Around 70% of these homes would be for social rent and shared ownership, with the remainder for outright sale to help pay for them with little government funding for social housing.

The social rent homes will be allocated to families on our housing waiting list, with priority for residents in priority need living on the De Beauvoir Estate.

If any demolition of homes did go ahead, the existing five secure Council tenants in Trinity Court would be guaranteed the right to return to a new, modern home at the same type of social rent, with one leaseholder offered a fair deal and compensation.

The shared ownership and outright sale homes will be sold by our in-house sales team, Hackney Sales, in accordance with our sales and marketing principles.

They are prioritised for people living and working in Hackney who are unable to afford to buy a home outright but are unlikely to be prioritised for social housing.

The plans for new homes are part of a coordinated investment in the estate, which includes:

• hundreds of new kitchens and bathrooms installed for existing residents
• better public spaces, drainage and security
• refurbishment of Fermain Court and the Rose Lipman Building

We’ve appointed award-winning architects Henley Halebrown, Stephen Taylor and Vogt Landscape to develop the ideas for new homes at 4 sites on the estate in more detail, and we want local people to be central to what these new homes could look like.

We’ll soon appoint architects to investigate whether our ideas for other redevelopment work in reality.

We’ve set up a dedicated Steering Group made up of local residents, chaired by Councillor James Peters, which works independently with the architects to ensure residents’ ambitions are at the heart of the design process.

Any residents who could be directly affected by redevelopment plans can speak to their Independent Tenant and Leaseholder Advisors, PPCR.

We’ll also organise public events to show the designs and get input from the community before any plans move forward.

We’re holding initial consultation events in April to give residents the chance to comment on our earlier ideas for what new homes and other facilities might look like.

We’ve also spoken directly to residents and businesses who could be affected by any redevelopment plans to reassure them and explain the guarantees we would offer them if any proposals did go ahead.