Housing Rebellion campaigner Grace Lally [Alice Horsley]

COUNCILS serious about meeting their net zero commitments must refurbish their estates rather than demolishing and rebuilding them, a panel discussion heard at LDN COP last month.

“Regeneration” is a process sometimes referred to as “urban renewal”, and often involves the demolition and rebuilding of homes on council or housing association-owned land.

While those in favour of regeneration say the homes on new estates can be built to higher environmental standards, critics of the practice say knocking down and rebuilding estates carries a heavy carbon footprint.

The regeneration of council homes are often “cross-funded” by the sale of private homes built on the same site. Campaigners say this development model serves to escalate land values.

Panellist Grace Lally, a campaigner for Housing Rebellion, criticised the way local authorities and housing associations often opt to demolish estates rather than retrofit them. She said: “It’s not about meeting the needs of housing in the community – it’s about how they’re going to make money on cashing in on the land value [of estates].”

Ms Lally, who has occupied several empty buildings in protest against the housing crisis, said greater legal pressure must be brought to bear on landlords to improve the current housing stock.

She said: “If we want to deal with damp and mould and really bad conditions that people are living in, we need to force the landlords to invest and bring these houses up to standard – that is a solution for quality housing, and it reduces energy consumption. It’s a win-win for everybody. Why are [the politicians] not interested in it? Because it’s not profitable.

“The direct action of residents [and] campaigners coming together, that’s how we can challenge the logic of the system. If there’s empty houses, let’s take them back… we have to be organised to push back.

“In reality, we’re going to have to force Camden Council to bring all the houses up to the standard that is going to reduce people’s energy bills, make sure people live in warm, safe, dry homes. We’ve got to get those residents organised. Form a rent strike: refuse to pay rent until you live in a decent, livable home. People can’t do that individually. They need to do it collectively, so that’s where we come in: we have to be the motor for getting people organised. That’s where as campaigners we can pay a really crucial role.”

Ms Lally said that climate and housing activism “come together and they can improve [our] lives and make a livable planet… organising occupations, protests, rent strikes – we have all these tactics in our armoury. We need to popularise them and train people up, how to organise these campaigns, and just spread it, and get active.”

Academic and author Anna Minton criticised the practice of “knocking down all our council estates – talk about carbon emissions, the carbon emissions of demolishing more than 100 council estates and replacing them with luxury apartment developments – [this] has been the pattern all across London”.