A Labour-led council has spent millions on refurbishing a housing estate that is set to be demolished.
Residents started to move out of Milford Towers in Catford, Lewisham in 2012, with the estate earmarked for demolition in 2016.
However, the estate, which is made up of 276 properties in eight blocks, is still standing as plans to regenerate Milford Towers and the wider Catford town centre have stalled.
Residents who still live there had said that “crackheads squat in abandoned homes” and there were “leaks everywhere and security issues”.
Milford Towers in Catford
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In 2024, in response to a public question, Lewisham Council cabinet member for better homes Will Cooper said the council had spent £14.52million in total on two phases of investment in the estate.
Back in 2021, in response to another public question, Councillor Paul Bell, then cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said more than £1.69million had been spent on refurbishment and concrete repair works to the estate that took place in 2018/19.
On Monday, October 14, Lewisham councillors approved plans to continue leasing out 181 properties on the estate to housing association Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) for another year due to delays in the regeneration of Catford town centre.
An all-Labour urgency committee took less than four minutes to approve the proposals, which must receive Government approval. Councillor Cooper said: “There’s not much more to be said chair on the report so I’m just going to formally move it and ask if there’s a seconder.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
The estate has become a hot spot for junkies
PA
In 2023, residents said the estate had become a hot spot for local junkies, with people defecating on the public stairways.
One resident who asked to only be known as Nikki said: “This has become the junkie place. Anyone comes in because of the broken door lock. They poo on the stairs and they leave their dirty drug stuff there.
“They find empty houses here and squat in them and the council leave them in for a few weeks without doing anything. It’s not nice for children. We need cameras on the stairwells at least.”
However, John Lestrange, 41, who has lived on the estate for over 10 years, said: “I like living here. It’s solid and the foundations are solid. But the repairs have built up over five decades. There are leaks everywhere and security issues. People are too scared to go in the communal areas and there does not seem to be any funding for the communal garden areas.”
One resident of six years, who declined to give his name for fear of repercussions, said: “The lifts have been broken for a month and it happens all the time. I’ve been complaining about it for over a year and it has never been sorted properly.
“Some people have got kids and imagine coming from downstairs and having to hold your baby up the stairs to your flat on the fifth floor. It’s mad. I come from Brazil and it’s a real struggle there, but also it’s a struggle here.”
The council originally agreed to lease a number of homes on the estate to NHG until 2015 to prevent the estate from becoming empty in advance of its demolition and to deter antisocial behaviour and squatting.
Due to delays in the regeneration scheme, the council has already twice extended the lease on properties at Milford Towers.