Carpenter’s Redevelopment: How Not to Run a Programme.
My London have recently reported on the ongoing saga that is the Carpenter’s regeneration programme. They focus on two issues, the escalating costs and the delays.
We reported some years ago on the spike in the costs to refurbish James Riley Point, when the costs shot up from £54m to £78m. In fairness, the increase in costs were not wholly the fault of an incompetent political leadership; building costs had risen sharply across the industry.
What this does not take into account is the decision of Mayor Fiaz to scrap the existing plans and start again.
Under Wales, a plan for a mixed redevelopment was developed and was on the point of completion. It involved the demolition of two 1960s tower blocks on the basis that demolition and rebuild was cheaper than refurbishment. The cost of refurbishment of James Riley Point turned out to be around £535,000 per flat. The council’s wholly owned development company, Red Door was building new flats at a cost of £200,000 per flat only a stone’s throw from the Carpenter’s estate at the time.
One of the criticisms of the Fiaz mayoralty has been her fixation on, what we hesitate to call ideology over pragmatism (only because her ideological position appears infinitely fluid). It was perhaps more to do with needing to placate what was then her political base by distancing herself from plans drawn up by Robin Wales, who was a hate figure of Labour’s left.
The local branch of the RCP, Trots who had joined the party during the Corbyn era and even Russel Brand were lined up to condemn the Wales housing proposals.
Nothing Wales had proposed was acceptable simply because it had been drawn up by Wales. Fiaz courted the support of local campaign groups PEACH and Focus E15, groups which now seem markedly less warm to Mayor Fiaz than they were to the campaigner Fiaz, who promised much and delivered little.
And Planning went back to year zero. We predicted at the time that this would extend the development process by some 8-10 years. And that, so it seems, is proving to be true. In the meantime, despite a housing list of thousands, some 400 properties sit empty on the Carpenter’s estate. (My London shows the state into which the properties have been allowed to decay.) And Focus E15 (and presumably, the RCP) have also clocked this rather embarrassing figure.
The time that it has taken and the impact of the delay by Mayor Fiaz to move forward is noted in the headline from the My London article.
As they note costs have spiraled out of control. “In just over two years, the estimated maximum borrowing costs for the project have jumped from £845 million (November 2022) to £1.1 billion (September 2023) then the current estimate of £1.421billion (December 2024).”
However, the feelings of the residents were clearly on the mind of one cabinet member, again quoting from My London, “Cllr Charlene McLean, Cabinet Member for Resident Engagement and Resident Experience, said: "...there are a lot of people that have lived on the Carpenters Estate since it was built and they've stayed there. They've been pushed from pillar to post that it's going to happen and it's not going to happen and now it's finally, finally happening."”
In other words “Our dithering and indecision has caused anxiety in our residents, but its ok now because we have finally made a decision”.
Given that the completion date stretches now to 2039, it is a shame that the needs of the residents had not been considered earlier. Quite how many of the current residents will remain alive to benefit from this is anybody’s guess.
And by the time the financial chickens come home to roost, this will all be somebody else’s problem. It will have nothing to do with Mayor Fiaz, who will be long gone. The person who will have to sort out this financial mess is probably still at school.
Perhaps that explains why it is only in the public sector where political incompetence is rewarded with honours and promotion.