Residents in the Lesnes Estate in Thamesmead are refusing to leave so it can be demolished and replaced with 1,950 new homes, with one branding the redevelopment scheme “pure evil”.
Bexley Council approved the plans for the 600-home estate, off Yarnton Way, in 2022. Most residents have found new homes elsewhere, but campaigners who remain were hoping that the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, would halt the plans.
Rayner declined to intervene before she resigned last week, and the project – spearheaded by Thamesmead’s main landowner, Peabody, can now proceed. The housing association says it will help homeowners move into new and existing homes in Thamesmead – including those on if that is what they want.
Campaigners occupied an empty house last year, demanding to meet the head of Peabody, which took charge of Thamesmed in 2014.
It is thought that there are still between 80 and 100 households living in Lesnes. Some are in negotiations with Peabody about moving, but others are refusing to leave the 1960s estate, which is full of dilapidated and boarded up homes.
Rose Asenguah, who has lived in her house for 18 years with her husband Matthew, said she fears she will be unable to get a new mortgage after turning 69 recently. “It’s been home to me. I love it,” she said. “I feel comfortable and happy here.”
Asenguah said she would go “to the ends of the earth” to remain at her house, even threatening to bring her case before the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights.
She said: “I don’t think that Peabody have a right to sell my house, to sell the land without my permission. That’s tantamount to stealing, to trespassing. This is England. You can’t just come into people’s homes and say you want them.
“They want to be making money for themselves, making us poorer and less healthy to die so that they can reign over our property and our land. I’m not going to have it. This is pure evil.”
Asenguah called the new blocks that are being built in Thamesmead “investment properties” that were being sold “at the expense of hardworking Londoners”.
Jeffrey Woodward, who has lived on the Lesnes Estate for 40 years – initially as a renter, but he bought his home in 2004 – said he thought the vacant properties could be used to house people on waiting lists.
When the 79-year-old first moved to Lesnes he was renting his home, but in 2004 he and his wife decided to purchase the property from the council. They did this when Jeffrey received a lump sum from his employers after the factory he worked in was shut down.
Woodward lives in the house with his wife, their three children and three grandchildren. He fears that neither him nor his children will be able to obtain a new mortgage.
He said: “I bought this house not for profit or gain. I bought it for life. Peabody suddenly comes and says we’re going to take it off and we’re going to give you money or we can offer you a place.”
Woodward does not want to take up Peabody’s offer for a new home because he feels as if he will be beholden to them for the rest of his life, whereas he currently owns his own home and the land on which it stands. He also feels that the new homes offered “aren’t fit for purpose” for him and his family as there are too many of them to fit into one home.
A residents’ ballot in 2020 found that 70.2 per cent of residents on the Lesnes Estate wanted it to be included in the housing association’s wider plans for south Thamesmead, with 65.4 per cent of residents taking part in the ballot.
A Peabody spokesperson said: “The regeneration of the Lesnes Estate aims to benefit the whole community – economically, environmentally and socially. It was supported by the majority of local people.”
Peabody is offering Lesnes residents the market value of their home plus 10 per cent as compensation. The developer is also willing to bridge potential price gaps between current and new homes by contributing up to half of the equity.
The spokesperson said: “Someone selling their home on the Lesnes Estate for £275,000 could potentially buy a brand new home for £600,000. They will still own 100 per cent of the home. We don’t charge any interest or fee for our share, and we only get the share back when the home is sold.
“If resident homeowners prefer to buy another home in Thamesmead – or elsewhere – then we can provide them with an equity share of up to per cent. The same terms apply.
“We will continue to buy back homes from those who remain, compensate them, and help them find another suitable home close by or somewhere else if they want.”
Cameron Blackshaw is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich and Bexley. The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media. Additional editing by Darryl Chamberlain.
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