Contesting social housing demolition through community co-design: The Alton Estate’s People’s Plan

In recent decades, many social housing estates in London have been demolished and replaced by mixed-tenure developments. These schemes have been strongly contested by residents and campaigns, who argue the schemes produce displacement, loss of social connections, and loss of socially rented homes. These alliances of residents and campaigners occasionally include researchers. This paper explores how co-design and participatory action research approaches can contest top-down demolition and redevelopment of social housing estates. It uses Alton Estate, in South-West London, which Wandsworth council planned to demolish and redevelop, as a case study. Through a partnership with resident-led group Alton Action, a team of researchers co-designed an alternative approach to regeneration with local communities, building on collectively produced evidence and focusing on improving the neighbourhood using the existing built environment. Through a series of knowledge exchanges and co-design workshops, communities and researchers co-produced the Alton Estate People’s Plan, a community vision to improve the neighbourhood. This process empowered residents to participate in decision-making regarding the future of their neighbourhood.