Hackney Council has approved the next phase of a major estate redevelopment set to deliver around 6,500 new homes in total, but triggered a backlash over the prospect of council tenants having to move twice 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 since May's local elections. It was held on 29 June and chaired by the new mayor, Zoë Garbett.
Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, cabinet member for regeneration, planning and inclusive neighbourhoods, said the latest stage would deliver 511 "high-quality, sustainable homes [and] an exemplary new neighbourhood in the north west of the borough."
The Phase 4 units comprise 90 homes for social rent (17.6 per cent) and 132 shared ownership homes (25.8 per cent), plus new commercial space and a public square on Woodberry Grove. The rest will be for private sale at market rate.
A scheme three decades in the making
First planned in the 1990s, Woodberry Down is led by a partnership of Hackney Council, Berkeley Homes, Notting Hill Genesis, the Woodberry Down Community Organisation (WDCO) and the Manor House Development Trust. So far it has seen hundreds of older homes in disrepair demolished and nearly 3,000 replacement homes built.
The then Labour-run council had long promised to rehouse secure tenants on the new estate once it was finished, a commitment the new Green administration has said it will honour.
However, the approved schedule means council households face being moved twice as demolition outpaces redevelopment — a practice known as "double decanting."
Of the 32 secure tenant households in Phase 5, council officers said 21 were likely to move into the new Phase 4 homes. Those homes will not be ready until summer 2030, around 18 months after Phase 5 must be emptied, and officers warned that "intermediate moves (a double decant), may be required" for them.
Labour cries U-turn
The prospect has led the Labour opposition to accuse the Greens of rowing back on Labour's earlier commitment not to move residents more than once.
Woodberry Down councillor Sarah Young (Labour) said that in power Labour had worked to avoid the "social cleansing" caused by forcing tenants to move twice or leave the estate, adding that the decision would also affect 132 households in temporary housing.
"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," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock said double decanting was the last remaining option to avoid costly delays that risked adding £13.5m to Phase 5 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, as per the council officers' report.
In April, WDCO said it was "pressing Hackney to ensure that no resident is moved twice unnecessarily." It is not the first time double moves have been planned on the estate. A council report from January 2010 outlined plans to move up to 126 households out of four blocks in very poor condition into empty flats on the estate, and then again into new homes.
Council figures show the number of secure tenant households in two of those blocks, Peak and Petherton Houses, fell from 71 in May 2010 to 27 by February 2011 — before the first replacement homes were handed over. Cabinet papers from the period do not show how many of those households were later moved a second time.
Labour, which ran Hackney until May and presided over the regeneration, welcomed what it called the new administration's "about turn," given the Greens' past criticism of the scheme.
The mayor's own words
The charge carries a particular edge because of Garbett's own record. Before her election as mayor, as a London Assembly Member she authored a March 2026 report attacking the "failed" demolition-led approach to estate regeneration.
Using Woodberry Down as a case study, she said residents had "soured" on the development because of 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 wrote.
The 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 Greens' 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."
Legacy decisions
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.
Additional reporting by Hackney Citizen.
This article was amended at 8:20pm on Saturday 3 October 2026 and at 11:35am on Monday 5 October 2026. An earlier version of this article said the scheme would deliver 5,500 homes in total. That figure comes from the 2014 masterplan. The revised masterplan approved in September 2025 increased the total to around 6,500, as set out in the June 2026 cabinet report. An earlier version of this article also said that council reports showed 126 households were double decanted from four blocks in 2010. A January 2010 council report outlined plans for up to 126 households to be moved twice. However, cabinet papers from the period do not say how many actually were. The article also said council reports put the number of households facing a double move at up to 32. The June 2026 cabinet report gives 32 as the total number of secure tenant households in Phase 5, of whom officers said 21 were likely to move into Phase 4 and may need an interim move. We have also clarified that the local elections took place in May.
