ANALYSIS Outside what will become a new community building, Putney MP Fleur Anderson was emphatic about what this week’s 82% yes vote for redevelopment of the Alton Estate means: “I don’t think anyone can say that the community doesn’t want this. They really do want this.”
Councillor Graeme Henderson was equally clear: “It’s a decisive result, which should quiet all the people who have been campaigning against it.”
The mandate is clear. The vast majority of those who voted backed Wandsworth Council’s £100m plan to demolish 177 homes and build up to 650 new ones on Alton Estate.
And the truth is, the estate desperately needs it.
Anderson emphasised this point: “It’s great to end the uncertainty as well, because everyone’s been so unsure, not knowing how to plan for the future for so long and now at last we can say, it definitely will be happening and it will be a good thing for the Alton Estate.”
Why this regeneration matters
For nearly two decades, Alton Estate has been caught in a cycle of failed plans and deteriorating conditions. Under previous Conservative administrations, multiple regeneration schemes collapsed. The last major proposal would have pushed cheaper council housing to the edges while placing expensive private housing in the estate’s centre – fundamentally betraying the original vision of mixed, integrated social housing that made Alton architecturally and socially significant.
While plans stalled and changed and collapsed again, maintenance suffered. Buildings weren’t properly looked after. Mould spread. In some blocks, stairwells remain poorly lit, perpetually damp, and frankly disgraceful. The entrance to the estate along Danebury Avenue – where shops sit empty and the old Co-op has been boarded up for years – looks tired and neglected.
Some of the housing earmarked for demolition is genuinely in poor condition. The current plan promises modern homes that meet contemporary standards for space, safety, and energy efficiency. More residents will bring more life and commerce to an area that needs both.
Not everyone is happy with the demolition; building professionals preferred a plan where they would be retained and added to. But it is an attempt to finally address decades of neglect and deliver on promises that have been made and broken repeatedly.
The high yes vote – 82% among those who participated – reflects real hope that this time, something will actually happen. That the uncertainty will end. That investment will finally come.
Anderson sees the vote as delivering exactly that certainty: “It’s a great mandate from so many people in the estate who came out to vote and want this to happen.”
On timing, she highlighted a crucial detail: the community building at the corner of Roehampton Lane – the former Co-op site that’s been empty for years – has been separated from the main regeneration scheme. This means it will be built first, within months, rather than waiting for the decade-long phased development.
Anderson sees this sequencing as significant. In typical regeneration schemes, community facilities come last – by which point developers often scale back promises or run out of money. Here, residents will see the community hub delivered upfront, reducing the risk of unfulfilled commitments.
It’s a 10-year project overall, but that first visible progress should come within months.
That optimism is warranted. This is genuinely good news for Alton Estate.
But serious questions remain
A yes vote doesn’t erase legitimate concerns about whether this regeneration will deliver what residents actually need. The council now has permission to proceed. Whether it can execute well is a different question entirely.
As Putney.news has reported in recent weeks, significant challenges emerge:
Transport remains unresolved. The estate’s isolation has been documented for two decades. Fleur Anderson herself objected to regeneration plans in 2020 on the grounds that they lacked a clear commitment from TfL to improve bus services. Five years later, with transport links actually worse than before, we will be adding 450 more homes without that commitment materialising. New residents won’t be allowed parking permits, compounding the problem.
Housing quality falls short of modern standards. In order to fit in as many people as possible, the development has a large number of one and two-person flats and fewer replacement family spaces, meaning families will need to use living rooms as bedrooms in brand new builds. While this meets planning requirements, it’s hardly the improvement residents were promised.
Leaseholder costs have proven unreliable. Door replacement costs at Kimpton House quadrupled from £59,000 to £260,000 after residents approved the work based on assurances it wouldn’t exceed £1,500 per flat. The Landlord Offer provides no service charge projections for the new development despite features that typically drive costs higher.
The council’s maintenance track record is poor. Years of sewage flooding at Denmead House, a housing department rated “seriously failing” by the Regulator of Social Housing, and systematic neglect documented through FOI requests raise questions about whether the council will maintain new buildings any better than existing ones. Quality of life depends on the basics – prompt repairs, regular cleaning, functioning plumbing – which the council has consistently failed to provide. A persistent complaint from residents of the estate is how poor the cleaning and maintenance of public spaces is.
These aren’t hypothetical concerns. They’re documented problems that will follow the regeneration forward unless the council fundamentally changes how it operates.
A genuine opportunity – if the council doesn’t waste it
The celebration at the results announcement was justified. After two decades of false starts, failed plans, and Conservative proposals that would have betrayed the estate’s founding principles, Labour’s plan offers something better: more genuinely affordable housing, facilities that serve the community, and a commitment to keep the estate’s mixed character.
The yes vote shows residents want this. They want investment. They want their neighbourhood to be somewhere they can feel proud of again, rather than somewhere that’s visibly deteriorating while politicians argue.
But wanting regeneration doesn’t mean accepting any regeneration. The concerns raised during the campaign weren’t invented by critics – they’re documented, specific, and legitimate.
Transport that’s been inadequate for 20 years won’t magically improve because 450 more homes are built. A housing department rated “seriously failing” needs to fundamentally change how it operates, not just build more buildings to fail to maintain.
Anderson is right that ending the uncertainty is valuable in itself. Years of false starts and changing plans have left residents unable to plan for their futures. The yes vote draws a line under that limbo. “Now at last we can say, it definitely will be happening,” she said.
What comes next depends entirely on whether the council can actually deliver. The estate has been neglected for two decades. The yes vote is a mandate for change. It’s also a challenge: prove you can do better this time.
Why is this project so cheap 100million for a ten year project plus all the other bits as well are the flats being built out of paper and straw will we ever know the true cost don’t forget they just paid Taylor wimpy 24 million don’t forget the majority is one and two bedrooms does this meet the needs plus we are looking at people who fail to arrange repairs did they not get a recent low mark for being a great council do you trust that all allocations are going to be sorted for the future two kids in same bedroom have to be same sex plus if they can’t keep the place clean now how will they cope with extra people maybe extra duties plus there is transport issues two buses it’s not good enough plus leaseholders not being coming back will they