Hackney’s new Green administration has approved the next phase of the major Woodberry Down regeneration, which has been decades in the making
Hackney Council has rubber-stamped the next phase of a major estate redevelopment tipped to deliver a total of 5,500 new homes, but triggered a backlash over the likelihood of council tenants facing two moves in the process.
The borough’s Green administration approved Phases 4 and 5 of the 30-year Woodberry Down regeneration at the first cabinet meeting chaired by the borough’s new Mayor Zoë Garbett since the local elections, held last week (June 29).
Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning and Inclusive Neighbourhoods, said the latest stage of the project would deliver 511 “high-quality, sustainable homes [and] an exemplary new neighbourhood in the north west of the borough”.
The housing units delivered in Phase 4 will comprise 90 homes for social rent (17.6%) and 132 shared ownership homes (25.8%), plus new commercial space and a new public square on Woodberry Grove. The remaining properties will be for private sale at the market rate.
First planned in the 1990s, Woodberry Down is led by a partnership of Hackney Council, Berkeley Homes, Notting Hill Genesis, Woodberry Down Community Organisation (WDCO) and the Manor House Development Trust. The scheme has seen hundreds of older homes in disrepair demolished and nearly 3,000 replacement homes rebuilt so far.
The council has long promised to rehouse occupants with secure tenancies on the new estate once it is finished, but the approved new schedule means up to 32 households face being moved twice as demolition outpaces redevelopment.
This has led the Labour opposition to claim the Greens are rowing back on the Labour administration’s earlier commitment not to move residents more than once, known as “double decanting”.
Woodberry Down councillor Sarah Young (Labour) said that when in power Labour had worked to avoid “social cleansing” caused by forcing tenants to move twice or else leave the estate, adding that the latest decision would also affect 132 households in temporary housing as well.
She later told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) : “For all of these families, moving more times than they need to will be a huge upheaval and one we have made every effort to avoid to date”.
Cllr Binnie-Lubbock said double decanting was the last remaining option the council had to avoid costly delays to construction, which risked saddling Phase 5 with a further £13.5m and “jeopardising the whole project”.
“Obviously, it’s less than ideal and a difficult decision to make,” he said, though disputing that Labour’s promise was a “cast iron guarantee”. Cllr Binnie-Lubbock put the new figure of households affected at 21 rather than 32.
In April, WDCO said it was “pressing Hackney to ensure that no resident is moved twice unnecessarily”. According to council reports, 126 households were double decanted from four blocks in 2010 because the buildings were uninhabitable.
Labour, which until May ran Hackney Council and presided over the Woodberry Down regeneration, took the opportunity to welcome what it deemed the new administration’s “about turn” on the project following the Greens’ past criticism of the project.
Before her election as Mayor, as a member of the London Assembly, Ms Garbett authored a report criticising the “failed” demolition-led approach to estate regeneration, published in March 2026. Using Woodberry Down as a case study, she said residents had “soured” on the development due to the stress and uncertainty it had caused.
“Too many broken promises and a lack of transparency by the developer means most of the trust they once had has evaporated,” she added. Her wider report concluded: “Residents across London are still living through the same failed model of estate regeneration, years of neglect, uncertainty and the very real risk of displacement.”
The party’s 2026 manifesto pledged to “review and monitor ‘partnerships’ between the council and property developers, including all estate regeneration projects, ensuring the needs of the community are always the priority”.
However, Mayor Garbett said her position had not changed but her administration was “grappling with a lot of legacy decisions”.
“We’re accepting where we are. This report isn’t even a planning decision, it’s about ensuring this phase can keep going. […] We want to make the best of it for residents,” the Mayor said.
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