A campaign group has criticised Lambeth Council for a redevelopment project which will see the eviction of over 100 non for profit organisations, community initiatives, and charities.
Save Nour also criticized the council for the sale to London Square, a property development company owned by Aldar Properties, which is in turn part owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company.
Joe Cole and Vanessa Boodhoo from the campaign group told the South West Londoner that they understood the council’s need to develop housing and struggles it faces with its finances, but that the plethora of charities International House was too important of a community asset to be redeveloped into luxury housing.
Cole said: “The publicly-owned building which is home to 150 community organizations doing immeasurably important work in the community in the context where local authorities’ abilities to deal with the crises of austerity and poverty have been diminished…you are kicking all of these organisations out with no relocation plan.
“We are talking about organisations working in HIV awareness in the black community, black men’ s mental health, supporting the integration of refugees into our society, supporting children who are suffering from PTSD.
“Luxury housing does not benefit the Lambeth residents at all, there’s a big question who we are inviting in our communities and who we are prioritising at the moment.”
International House is home to charities such as Refugees at Home, and Black Thrive.
Cole also argued that a lot of the work being done by charities in the building were helping the council to complete its statutory social services and that removing them would cost the council more money in the long run.
Save Nour meets with tenants in the building for nightly lunches to discuss their response to the development and encourage them to advocate for themselves.
In a Instagram post they also criticised the developer involved in the project.
Boodhoo said the campaign group was also not happy with the choice of the developer.
“I mean the UAE has been complicit in so many different human rights abuses, we are talking about Sudan, we are talking about going against different kinds of embargos for weapons,” she said.
Council documents from the consultation period show the response to this objection was that this was ‘not a material planning consideration’.
The development will see the building of three towers and the refurbishment of International House, an office block previously home to Lambeth Council offices, which is currently leased to 3 Space.
3 space is a charity which leases buildings and provides affordable work spaces for small organisations such as charities, and Community interest companies.
The council-owned building International House and the event space site next door, Pop Brixton, will be redeveloped to create 288 housing units alongside other mixed use amenities, including workspaces, some which will be affordable.
Of the housing units, 98 will be dedicated to social rent affordable housing making the percentage of affordable units 34%.
These will house 802 habitable rooms of which 343 will be affordable, making the percentage of affordable rooms in the development 40.3%.
That is 0.3% above the council target for affordable housing in new housing developments in general, but 9.7% below affordable housing threshold for developments on public land which sits at 50%.
The planning statement states that thresholds set out by the council can be lowered to 35% in the case of time-limited planning routes, and if other requirements regarding other uses are met.
Elena Lo Presti, 28, runs the non-for-profit community interest company, Craft Forward, out of International House.
Craft Forward provides free crafts workshops for people to get involved with crafts and engage with their communities.
Lo Presti said she felt support for tenants who would be evicted in the process had been minimal.
“In terms of support for tenants, they just said email us and we’ll sign you up to a support chain, obviously I did that, nothing came of it,” she said.
She said if she were to be evicted she would likely have to find a space outside of Lambeth in order to afford it.
3 space, the current leaser, currently provides over 6,000 sqm of affordable workspace in International House.
The proposed development will see a workspace zone of 3,806 sqm, 1,431 sqm of which will be affordable.
The statement of community involvement by London Square and Thomas Pollard Edwards shows community engagement started in the summer of 2023 and was re-launched in 2025.
The statement and planning document showed that London Square had completed over 50 engagement events and over 60 hours of workshops.
A planning statement by the council showed that consultation letters on the development were sent to 732 surrounding properties and received 63 responses, 53 of which were objections.
In the planning application announcement Councillor Danny Adilypour, Deputy Leader (Housing, Investment and New Homes) at Lambeth Council, said:
“I am proud that, through extensive engagement, we’ve created plans that truly reflect the voices of Brixton’s diverse community.
“These proposals will not only deliver more 100 per cent social rent homes for our residents but also new housing options for those who may want to call Brixton home.”
Cole said he agreed housing was necessary and that the site next door, Pop Brixton, was “a good example of a site that ought to be developed”.
He added: “We are not NIMBYs, we’re not opposed to development… we want the important work that’s being done in Brixton for the communities in Lambeth, for the most marginalised people in Lambeth to be recognised and we want them to be centred because they are stepping up where the state has fallen back.”
Lambeth Council was contacted for comment and pointed towards its announcement document and community engagement.
London Square has been contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Lucy Giles
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