Hillington Square, owned by Freebridge Community Housing, is in the middle of a multiphase regeneration, with a masterplan developed by Hemingway Design, with further input from mae architects and implemented by Lovell.

It has won several awards, including

• Sept 2015 Housing category of the Architect's Journal retrofit Award
• Sept 2015 Royal Town Planning Institute's East of England award for planning excellence
• July 2016 finalist in RTPI awards for planning excellence

It is an ongoing project, expected to run until 2021, and at June 2018, 203 properties had been refurbished, with 89 more pending

https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/blog/urban-desig...

https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/projects/hilling...

referenced in https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

Official start on site for Hillington Square

https://www.lovell.co.uk/news/30m-programme-transf...

https://www.lovell.co.uk/news/freebridge-selects-l...

https://www.lovell.co.uk/news/students-build-knowl...

Mae Architects gives second life to unloved Hillington Square housing estate

Seven pioneering social housing projects selected by Paul Karakusevic

In a story about Cressingham Gardens, Lambeth, South London, the following was stated:
They just want working class people out of here. We have a real community here, and they just want to demolish it.
the socially ambitious era that existed at the end of the Sixties. By the early 1980s, 42% of people lived in social housing. Now it's 8%
New government figures on homelessness released today show that in the last year alone, 59,090 households were accepted as homeless by their local council - a rise of 17% over the last five years. Much of that increase is due to the benefit cap which the courts tore a hole through today with a landmark ruling on families with young children.
Anyone trying to understand the wider social housing crisis should watch Dispossession, a new documentary by Paul Sng and narrated by Maxine Peake . Featuring the voices of Cressingham's residents and others it documents how housing policy ­failures began with Right To Buy - which senior Tories later admitted was designed to create more home-owning Tory voters.
The policy has left 1.4 million people on the list for a council home. Yet, an extension to Right To Buy, the new Tory Housing Bill, is about to make the effect exponentially worse - with Shelter projecting a staggering further loss of 180,000 council homes.
2016 saw a 24-year low in house building. But "regeneration" is also acting as a form of social cleansing. Just look at the Heygate estate in Elephant and Castle - 1,034 homes flattened, 2,704 built and only 82 social houses in the new development.
The theme is the same, every time. The powerful versus the powerless. Working class people ignored, pushed aside.
Dispossession is out this month. See dispossessionfilm.com.

A 2016 video about the regeneration in West Hendon Estate. Available on YouTube

On Facebook

YourMK regeneration page
YourMK housing condition
BBC local report of £1bn upgrade
BBC 3 Counties Radio interview with Simon Cherrill
MK Citizen news report - may not have facts correct
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Parliament housing report
Bristol solution on housing
Richard Macer on Milton Keynes after 50 years for Milton Keynes and Me on BBC4 on 16 August at 9pm
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

The tragic fire at Grenfell has raised the profile of campaigns for social housing in London especially. The links below have been gathered from some of the articles
Grenfell Action Group Radical Housing Network, a London-wide alliance of groups fighting for housing justice Demolition Watch good practice estate regeneration guide (London draft) London Tenants Federation (LTF) Fuel poverty action Kensington and Chelsea council operated a policy of social cleansing Everyone who lives in social housing needs action, not this chaos Dawn Foster, Guardian, 13/10/17 Housing benefit cuts leave poor vulnerableGaudian, 13/10/17 Homelessness has surged for seven yearsJohn Harris, Guardian, 13/10/17 Selling off council homes is economically and morally reprehensible.Johnathan Manns, Colliers International, Guardian, 11/10/17 Racial injustice in Britain's social housingCym D'Souza, Chair, BMENational, 10/10/17 Stop selling off public land Alice Martin, Housing lead, New Economics Foundation, 6/10/17

Defend Council Housing (DCH) campaignHas a "latest from the press" section on home page
We need a national voice for tenants in social housing. Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK in letter to The Guardian, 15/8/17
Mears profit warning due to fallout from Grenfell The Guardian, 15/8/17
The way residents and tenants are treated is a stain on modern Britain Dawn Foster in The Guardian, 18/8/17
Social Housing More Popular With Public 16/10/2017
universal credit brought miseryAmelia Gentleman, Guardian, 18 Oct 2017
universal credit - blame for the poorGiles Fraser, Guardian, 19 Oct 2017
Gordon Peters vs Haringey Development Vehicle Aditya Chakrabortty, Guardian, 25/10/17
Housing benefit climbdown Dawn Foster, Guardian, 27/10/17
Viability assessment cuts social housing May Bulman, Independent, 1/11/17
Labour councils accused of social cleansing Kirsty Major, Independent, 4/11/17

Published: 11:24 Thursday 28 September 2017
Dozens of new council houses are to be built as part of a £54m investment in housing stock.
MK Council plans to build 76 homes in Wolverton, Conniburrow and Fishermead. The locations include Cotsfoot Place, Franklins Croft, Kellen Drive and Germander Place. On top of this, the council is buying around 40 existing properties that are dotted around MK, planning to convert them for its own use. The plan is part of a major investment that will also see £8m spent on providing new roofs and windows for many current council homes. More cash will be spent on improving blocks of council owned flats – including an extra £1m on fire safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster. But the biggest chunk of money – more than £18m – will be spent on the city’s regeneration programme for rundown estates. This is due to start soon in Fullers Slade. All the money comes from the council’s own funds and capital receipts.

Cabinet member for housing Nigel Long said: “The council is strongly committed to improving the 14,000 homes it owns. We are also committed to building and acquiring new homes. “But there is so much more to do. We need the freedom to borrow to invest. If the government removed the cap on our ability to borrow we would invest millions more.” The housing spend totals £53.992m. Almost half of this comes from the council’s revenue contributions, while £18.7m is from the major repairs allowance fund. The biggest new build scheme will be at Franklin Croft in Wolverton. Here MK Council plans to spend £916,860 on new houses to rent to future tenants. A smaller portion – £5.76m – will come from the council’s capital receipts. This is money generated by selling off assets such as houses under the right to buy scheme.

Campaigners urge Milton Keynes Council to act on homelessness NOW by Sally Murrer
Published: 15:23 Wednesday 20 September 2017
As Milton Keynes Council strives desperately to reduce rough sleeping on city streets, another winter of discontent is looming for dozens of homeless people forced to live under canvas. Activists say a third season of consultations by the council is not good enough and immediate action is needed. The MK People’s Assembly this week organised a ‘Sit in Solidarity’ protest on the steps of the city church – the very spot where homeless man Tony Porter died of hypothermia 19 months ago. The tragedy was the start of a grim trio of rough sleeper deaths, culminating in James Owens being found lifeless in his tent under a CMK underpass last October. There are currently 130 people sleeping rough in MK.
Yet, despite the best efforts of charities, volunteers and the council, the Winter Night Shelter and Bus Shelter can accommodate just 46 of them – all with relatively low support needs, claimed assembly chair Kevin Vickers. “We’ve attended two years of meetings with no progress on this issue. We cannot keep quiet as the council try to avoid the issue with another three month winter consultation,” he said. “Homeless people need safe and secure accommodation and support to have a chance to get back on their feet. There are hundreds of empty buildings in Milton Keynes, why are they not being used?” he added. But the council’s cabinet, which last week launched draft proposals for a £300,000 12-point plan to help rough sleepers, insists it is doing its very best. Its Labour leaders blame Tory government cuts for not allowing them to do more. Indeed, within days of the 12-point plan being aired, the council learned it will lose £2.31 million in homelessness funding from central government over the next two years. Councillor Nigel Long, cabinet member for housing, is writing to the two MK MPs urging them to help restore the funding.
Meanwhile the council has put the new ‘Rough Sleeper Reduction Strategy’ out for 12 week of public consultation. It aims to provide a ‘joined-up approach’ from agencies to stop people sleeping rough in the first place, provide an outreach service for people on the streets and find suitable housing. But Mr Long admits tackling the rapidly rising numbers of homelessness in MK will be a ‘huge challenge’.

low cost micro-home for single people - based in Worcestershire
Christian social enterprise to house homeless
Winter night shelter in Milton Keynes accommodation and support from December to March
Using a Bus to give 16 sleeping places in Milton Keynes
Help our Homeless MK
• The food bank - They are always looking for volunteers and donations. Please contact them if you'd like to do either.
• Open Door - 01908 295616
• MK Storehouse - 01908 233725
• Salvation Army - 01908 606916
• Love in action - 01908 606916
• Faith Dimension - 01908 221 382
• The nightly soup run - Rachel Morley.