Red Loft reposted this
A cold but enjoyable trip down memory lane yesterday to Lampton Parkside as part of the 1.5M New Homes campaign. When I first visited in 2020 in my role supporting Notting Hill Genesis, some enterprising squatters had outwitted security to set up camp deep within the former Hounslow Civic Centre with a cycle powered electricity supply. Less than 5 years later, through the stewardship of London Borough of Hounslow and the partnership between Notting Hill Genesis and Hill Partnerships, it's a thriving mixed-tenure community. To deliver 1.5m homes and make inroads into the temporary accommodation crisis, this is exactly the sort of ambitious approach that is needed at scale. I enjoyed discussing the importance of engaging and learning from communities to improve development proposals, while remaining robust in defending the principle of development itself, and it was great listening to Peter O'Brien talk about the steps Hounslow are taking to build capacity in the system, and the borough's impressive over-delivery against their housing target shows the art of the possible. Look out for more on this from the team at 1.5M New Homes in the new year. A few photos in no particular order 1) the dynamo-powered bike 2) The site now 3) Filming in action 4) A cat enjoying its new surrounding
