Supporting land assembly, Merton

Askival has been appointed by Clarion Housing Group to manage acquisition negotiations to support land assembly for the regeneration of three housing estates in Merton.  Askival’s work will help Clarion reach negotiated settlements with their leaseholders and demonstrate to Merton Council that they are making all reasonable efforts to engage with stakeholders to reach voluntary agreements.

In 2010 the London Borough of Merton transferred its housing stock to Clarion Housing Group, which is undertaking a massive £1bn regeneration scheme as part of an extensive programme of investment in Merton communities.  The Merton Regeneration Project will increase the number of homes and deliver new parks, public squares, community spaces, recreational facilities, play spaces, new retail, office, leisure spaces and create new jobs.

The programme includes the regeneration of three neighbourhoods:

• Ravensbury
• High Path
• Eastfields

These are complex, multi-phase schemes where Clarion is committed to supporting existing residential leaseholders with opportunities to remain on the estate by relocating to new properties, with options to address the price differential between their existing home and the new one.

There are also significant numbers of non-resident leaseholders on the estates where an offer to acquire at market value has been made.

On behalf of Clarion, Askival will seek to:

• engage with both resident and non-resident leaseholders to undertake settlement negotiations in order to secure acquisitions within a timeframe that enables the development to progress in accordance with the delivery plan
• support homeowners to understand the options open to them and the details of Clarion’s acquisition process
• feed back to Clarion on any specific cases that may require special consideration and agree an appropriate plan of action
• set up suitable monitoring arrangements
• provide regular progress reports to Clarion and where required, the council

The specialist team, working alongside Clarion’s director of regeneration Paul Quinn, includes Askival director Tony Draper and associates Rob Lantsbury and Iftekhar Ahmed.