L&Q completes phase three of Excalibur Estate
L&Q has announced the completion of 159 affordable homes at Excalibur Estate in partnership with Lewisham Council. All residents have now moved into their new homes and are settling in the redeveloped part of the estate.
Earlier this year, regeneration works at Excalibur Estate concluded on the first three phases of development, with residents moving into 159 new homes completed to date.
The milestone was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with representatives from L&Q and Lewisham Council. Guests included Mayor Brenda Dacres, Cllr James Walsh, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Regeneration and Planning, and the local ward councillors, Mark Ingleby, Kim Powell and Yemisi Anifowose.
A fascinating piece of architectural and urban history, Excalibur was one of the largest pre-fabricated housing estates in the UK built after WWII. It originally comprised 189 bungalows built in response to the severe housing shortage after the London Blitz.
By 2006, the old bungalows were no longer fit for purpose by modern living standards. Lewisham Council announced plans to redevelop the estate and replace the bungalows with around 370 new homes. L&Q was brought on board as a development partner in 2007 and has been delivering this ambitious plan ever since.
All of the homes on site are affordable, split between affordable rent (115), London Living Rent (18) and shared ownership (26), responding to the local housing need. 222 more homes are planned for the fourth and final phase of development.
The construction work was carried out by L&Q’s in-house construction team.
Vicky Savage, Executive Group Director for Development & Sales at L&Q, said:
“We are delighted to be celebrating this milestone at Excalibur after years of hard work and close support from our partners at Lewisham Council. At L&Q, our mission is to deliver homes and neighbourhoods that everyone can be proud of, and we are pleased to enable partners like Lewisham Council to deliver the affordable housing needed locally.
“The first three development phases we have completed at Excalibur are 100% affordable, and we believe this will support the growth of a sustainable and successful community locally.”
Mayor of Lewisham, Brenda Dacres, said:
“We are proud to be providing a further 102 high quality and affordable homes for local families through our Building for Lewisham programme, ensuring that they have a safe and secure place to call their own.
"We continue to make the case to government on the need to build more homes, and with over 17,000 homes with granted planning permission in the borough, we will continue to work alongside the private sector to ensure that everyone in the borough can have access to a place that they can call home."
Cllr James-J Walsh, Lewisham Council’s Cabinet Member for Inclusive Regeneration and Planning, said:
“With nearly 11,000 families on our social housing waiting list, our Building for Lewisham programme is working hard to deliver the homes Lewisham needs.
“When the post-War Excalibur Estate was first built, Britain had an acute need for housing, and we find ourselves in a not so dissimilar situation in Britain now. That same level of innovation and ingenuity needs to once against be brought to bear, and through ventures such as this, we will deliver the next generation of housing needed.”
There are over 10,500 people on the housing register in Lewisham. The Council are continuing to build new social homes through the Building for Lewisham programme, as well as pushing private developers to deliver more social housing, but there is still a severe shortage of social homes in the borough.
L&Q is a major housing provider in Lewisham, managing almost 9,000 homes across several estates and developments. The housing association and Lewisham Council are looking to progress the plans for the fourth and final phase of development at Excalibur later this year.