“I am the only 20-year-old in the UK that George Osborne is prepared to help with housing,” newly elected Mhairi Black told the Commons in her rousing maiden speech this week. Osborne would no doubt argue that by bolstering the right to buy he’s helping thousands of people become leaseholders rather than renters. Owning your own home is a fast route to security, and also a sign of personal achievement and aspiration, the argument goes. Who wouldn’t want to be a leaseholder, rather than simply a tenant?

If Osborne hopped on the 159 bus from Number 11 and disembarked in Brixton, he’d find a large number of disenchanted and rightly aggrieved leaseholders. The residents of Cressingham Gardens are locked in a battle with Labour-controlled Lambeth council over the future of their estate. Signs of the dispute are everywhere in Brixton. On Monday evening, protesters with placards and loudspeakers spilled on to the road outside the town hall as councillors met. In nearby Brockwell Park, a model village has had miniature Foxtons “For Sale” signs placed outside each diminutive house in protest at the rapid gentrification of the area.



Leaseholders must pay thousands of pounds to ensure their homes are in good enough condition to be knocked down

Cressingham Gardens residents gather outside Lambeth Town Hall in south London Guardian

The dispute stems from the council’s decision to carry out repairs to some of the 306 properties – despite residents pointing out they’ve had no issues with leaks and do not believe the properties are structurally unsound. The council has put aside £1.4m for the repairs, which it says is immediately required to weatherproof the estate irrespective of the regeneration, but is asking leaseholders to pay up to £14,000 towards the cost of repairs, money that most simply don’t have.

That hardship would be bad news, regardless. But in the same week leaseholders on the estate were also told the council plans to demolish the entire estate. The residents now feel as though they are expecting to lose their homes shortly after being forced to pay thousands of pounds to ensure they are in good enough condition to be knocked down by bulldozers and wrecking balls.

Protesters and residents argue that the council’s plans to rebuild the estate with a number of luxury flats available for sale on the open market is designed to drive long-standing residents out of the area. Lambeth council points out the borough has a shortage of houses and more than 20,000 people on the housing waiting list, and that the regeneration will provide 158 extra new homes for the borough. A spokesperson added that “now a decision has been made for the redevelopment of the estate, the estimated bills will be reviewed”.

Joanna Hoare, who has been warned to put aside £13,500 for repairs, said: “The timing of these repairs seems punitive. The idea of being in nearly £14,000 of debt when my home is about to be demolished is scandalous. Not only that, I won’t be able to afford one of the new properties. This is going to drive me from the area.”



The idea of being in nearly £14,000 of debt when my home is about to be demolished is scandalous Joanna Hoare

Cressingham Gardens demonstrators in Windrush Square, Brixton. Photograph: Louis Leeson/The Guardian

After a long-running dispute, the demolition plans were agreed unanimously by the council to the dismay of tenants and residents. Social tenants in the estate will be guaranteed a replacement home on the regenerated estate, but it is likely that leaseholders will be out of luck. The compensation received from the council is unlikely to be enough to buy one of the luxury flats that will stand in place of their homes, but the council will offer residents the option to be a shared owner or a tenant in the new homes.

Aspiration is the bedrock of the right-to-buy policy: tenants who “aspire” can become homeowners, building a future for their children and family. But the story of Cressingham Gardens is far from unique: across London old estates have become desirable, either due to their location, land value, or architectural charms, and refurbishment has resulted in marked changes in the social make up of the tenants and homeowners.

For Cressingham Gardens residents, the repairs bill for leaseholders is as absurd as it is ruinous. While residents wait to find out if they can return after their homes are bulldozed, leaseholders are stung with the perils of their own aspiration. Who wouldn’t want to be one?



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