South Kilburn estate
Number of homes: 800
Landlord: Brent Council
Ballot Status: Approved
Planning Status: Approved
Developer: Countryside
Architect: Alison Brooks
Tenants Advisor: Communities First
Circa 800 homes remain under threat of demolition at Brent's redevelopment of the South Kilburn estate.
The redevelopment of the current proposals for the South Kilburn estate are based on the 2017 approved masterplan..
The first phase of the scheme has seen four sites (marked in blue below) granted planning permission and which are currently underway. As of July 2019 there remained 17 blocks in the second half of the scheme earmarked for demolition (shaded orange), but these are yet to seek planning consent - see this Cabinet report, item 7.
A ballot of residents in the second phase of the scheme returned a positive result in Oct 2019.
There are no publicly available section 106 agreements for the consented phases so it is impossible to confirm whether the replacement 'social' housing will be social rent or affordable rent (up to 80% market rent).
In 2020, it was reported that residents were experiencing ongoing defects with homes completed in the earlier phases of the scheme.
In April 2021, a window was reported to have fallen out of one of these new build blocks.
UCL Bartlett's Dr Pablo Sendra is currently working with residents on the estate to create an alternative community-led plan, which satisfies the Council's regeneration objectives while retaining the estate's existing buildings.
You can read a summary of the plan here or the full report here.
There is also a presentation of the plans by Dr Sendra online here:
In february 2022, the Guardian published a detailed critique of the scheme.
In March 2024, the BBC published an article about the decanted estate being left in a state of severe decay: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68440067
In January 2024, Leslie Barson of Granville Community Kitchen in South Kilburn, a long-time community activist, spoke at the 'Unravelling Regeneration - Stories of a Community' Metroland Exhibition.
She gave a first-hand account of the impact of regeneration on the lives of local people and on the community resources that have supported them over the years:
In October 2024, it was reported that Brent Council was seeking to avoid the scheme hitting the buffers by appointing a single developer for the remainder of the scheme and increasing the amount of private housing.
In July 2025, there were further reports of windows falling out of new-build blocks on the estate.