Contract agreed for demolition of first block on Tottenham estate earmarked for redevelopment

A new management plan for Love Lane Estate has also been agreed with a total budget of £1.1m, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Whitehall Lodge (credit Google) and (inset) Tammy Hymas

Delivery of “warm, safe and comfortable homes” at a Tottenham estate could be one step closer to reality, with Haringey Council agreeing a new delivery deal for the project.

Last Tuesday (14th), the local authority’s cabinet approved a set of new measures for the “currently stalled” project at Love Lane Estate that will see old tower blocks replaced with new homes.

The hope is to speed up delivery of new council homes as part of its troubled ‘High Road West’ scheme and to further the council’s “long-term plan for the Love Lane Estate”.

The redevelopment of Love Lane Estate has been planned for several years, with residents backing the scheme in a ballot in 2021 and the High Road West plans for 2,929 homes subsequently winning approval in 2022, despite opposition from Tottenham Hotspur.

A council report published ahead of the cabinet’s decision said the project “is currently stalled, due to difficult market conditions which have impacted the viability of the scheme”.

The council, now led by a Green minority administration following May’s local election, will now sign a new contract to demolish Whitehall Lodge and build 61 council homes on the site as part of ‘Phase 1A’ of the scheme.

These will be built as a mixture of 20 one-bed flats, 19 three-bed flats and eight maisonettes ranging from three to four bedrooms in size.

The value of the contract has not yet been made public. Neither has the identity of the company set to receive it, with council minutes simply referring to “Contractor A”.

This contractor will also be responsible for the demolition of another tower block at 2-32 Whitehall Street, set to be replaced with new homes in the next phase of the project, dubbed ‘Phase 1B’. These will be built by Lendlease, an Australian multinational construction and real estate company.

This council hopes these moves will help see the derelict blocks taken down to be replaced with “warm, safe and comfortable” homes.

It has also said that it will be “guaranteeing a right to return for Love Lane residents”, meaning that current tenants will have first option on new homes as they are built.

The plans will also give councillor Tammy Hymas, co-deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, powers to approve the award of contracts for site security and for the decommissioning and demolition of the Ermine, Charles and Moselle blocks, where contract values exceeded £500,000.

The local authority says this delegated authority has been given to Cllr Hymas to “ensure that the council could implement the Estate Management Plan in a timely manner”.

At the meeting, cabinet members also approved its new management plan for the site with a total budget of £1.1million.

The council says this plan has been “designed to address health and safety considerations, support the management of vacant properties and maintain the effective operation of the estate during phased redevelopment”.

The plan also includes a strategy to enable the use of lower-rise blocks for housing “where feasible during the transition period”.

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