Southwark Council pauses plans to build rooftop homes on its council blocks

15 July 2022

Southwark Council has paused its current plans to build rooftop extensions on its existing council blocks. The council had been exploring options to build rooftop extensions on a number of blocks across the borough to provide much-needed new council homes for local residents.

Southwark Council is using a range of options to build thousands of new council homes across the borough. The council had established that rooftop extensions would be structurally sound and safe to build, and could offer a more efficient, greener way to provide new homes.

However, after listening to residents’ views, and taking into consideration more stringent building regulations and rising construction costs, the council has decided not to go ahead with these plans. The council can meet its council homes building targets from other types of developments, having already met its target to start 2,500 new council homes in March 2022.

Councillor Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness, said “We have made the decision to pause our current plans to build rooftop extensions on some of our council blocks. Building homes in this way using modern construction techniques could have provided a whole suite of desperately-needed new council homes for our residents, and it is something I hope we are in a position to explore again in the future.

“We will of course continue to use all the other options we have available to us to provide new homes for our residents, including by building on our existing estates, converting garages and disused areas, and buying homes which have been developed by others. We will continue doing everything in our power to tackle the housing crisis locally and meet the needs of our residents. I would like to thank residents for their patience and for working with us as we explored this potential solution to the housing crisis.”

Southwark Council will still continue to carry out major improvement works and maintenance to blocks where these are scheduled. The council has written to individual residents in affected blocks to explain the situation and thank them for their feedback and cooperation.

Page last updated: 15 July 2022