Last modified on Wed 2 Jun 2021 07.48 EDT
Councils in London are facing resistance over plans to build homes on children’s play spaces in inner-city estates.
Housebuilding plans are being drawn up across the capital in an attempt to reduce housing waiting lists. Southwark council alone aims to build 11,000 homes for social rent by 2024 and is looking for “under-utilised space” on existing estates. But residents say vital community spaces are being sacrificed.
Southwark is proposing a six-storey block of homes for social rent on the site of a football cage at the centre of the Elim estate in Bermondsey. Daniel Kanu, the head of the residents’ association and a football coach, says most local people oppose the plans.