Lewisham Shopping Centre: campaigners challenge Greens in anti-gentrification debate

In the latest phase of the Save Lewisham Shopping Centre campaign, Lewisham People’s Assembly called on Lewisham council to use its powers to block the development of the shopping centre unless it can provide 50% affordable housing.

The campaign brought forward a petition, which the council debated at the full council meeting on Wednesday 23 September.

Lewisham’s People Assembly held a well-attended rally outside the town hall before the full council meeting.

A number of passionate speakers explained their support for the campaign.

One speaker at the rally whose family who had lived in the borough for five generations, told the crowd that she was unable to move out of the family home and could not afford to live independently in the borough.

Following the rally, campaigners filed into the town hall to watch the debate which was opened by Faris Luke, lead campaigner for Lewisham People’s Assembly.

He called on council to use the compulsory purchase order (CPO) to negotiate 50% affordable housing across the development, and to reject the usual approach of using viability assessments or grant funding from the Greater London Authority in attempts to increase affordable housing supply.

The developer, Landsec, may have to request the use of a CPO to buy Lewisham House on Molesworth Street which it wants to demolish as part of its development.

Lewisham House No.1 (LHN1), the current owner, submitted competing development plans for its site.

Landsec's plans, which were were accepted by the previous Labour council in October 2025, will see just 16% of the homes classified as affordable, 6% of which will be social rent and the remaining described as “intermediate tenure affordable”.

The blocking of the CPO has been a key target for the campaigners since the development was approved.

18 Green Party candidates who went on to become Lewisham councillors endorsed the campaign prior to their election, including the current mayor Liam Shrivastava.

Shrivastava was also previously a speaker at Save Lewisham Shopping Centre campaign rallies.

However, the section 106 agreement between "The Mayor and Burgesses" of Lewisham and Landsec, was quietly signed off on 8 July progressing the development further.

Shrivastava announced on Instagram prior to the debate and in the council meeting that he will not grant any CPO unless he can negotiate enough affordable housing in the development. What he considers enough however remains unclear.

Luke's 5 minute speech was the only chance campaigners were given to make their case.

For the rest of the debate, different Green councillors made general expressions of support, while explaining that their hands were tied and making no reference to their pledge.

Support local independent journalism from just £2 per month or leave a tip.

Daniel Dream, a Green councillor and cabinet member who holds the Inclusive Regeneration, Planning and Housing Delivery portfolio, did not endorse the campaign ahead of the elections.

He emphasised the difficulty in stopping plans that had already been approved prior to his election.

He said: “It is important to be clear what this administration or any administration can and cannot do in a situation like this, we don’t have the power to simply block or reject a scheme that’s already been through planning approval.

"Some people might want that to be true, but it isn’t and we need to be talking facts.

“I can tell you directly that even if this proposal had had 0% affordable housing and if Labour had refused the scheme last year, it most likely would have been subsequently approved by the GLA anyway.”

Councillor Shireen Asaw who holds the portfolio of Workers, Business and Skills, said: “The planning application for the shopping centre was approved by the previous administration. We did inherit an approved development that is on privately owned land.

“We can’t vote tonight to pretend that the planning decision never happened, I don’t think that it serves us as residents or serves democracy as a whole to tell people otherwise.”

The debate continued largely with Green councillors saying they thanked the campaigners for bringing the issue to debate, but then ultimately expressing regret that they can’t change the past.

That is despite 18 Green councillors having pledged the now seemingly impossible, prior to the elections.

Labour councillor and leader of the opposition Ese Erheriene was keen to remind the new administration that Labour had already warned of this.

 “Before the election, some of the Green members, not all, some, were saying something completely different, they were at your demonstrations arguing against the development of this shopping centre," she said.

“Now post-election, mayor Shrivastava, councillor Tam being examples, they are delivering it.”

Erheriene also argued that if the council were to withhold the CPO until enough social housing was agreed, it could jeopardise the small amount of social housing delivery within the scheme.

She argued that delaying the project would increase the cost for the developer, making the plan to build the social housing less financially viable.

This heard was heard to heckling from the public gallery.

The debate was an emotional one, with speakers prefacing their argument with their personal connection to Lewisham and often to the shopping centre, in a Top Trump fashion.

Councillor Maria McKenna’s speech seemed to argue both for and against the development, provoking further heckling from the public gallery.

This resulted in an outburst from councillor Rotimi Skyers shouting, "have some respect" at the campaigners and their supporters.

The speaker Aaron Regisford called for calm from everybody, and Skyers apologised to the meeting.

The issue of the housing crisis and on-going cost of living crisis, as well as years of austerity has seen a marked increase of struggle and difficulty for people in Lewisham to access housing.

Lewisham People's Assembly argue that "young, working class and ethnic minority residents, particularly Black British people are disproportionately at risk of being displaced".

The campaigners explained to Salamander in July that the campaign goes beyond the single-issue of the shopping centre, but what it really wants is to change the model of housing delivery across the borough.

They want to see the Greens reject private developer-led housing delivery, as it is something that they argue does not work for the people of Lewisham, pointing out that these kinds of developments have come to be associated with rising rents and higher living costs across London.

It is clear that they see the decision on the Shopping Centre development as an indicator of the model of housing delivery the Greens will pursue in the future, and are questioning whether they will ultimately fall in line with the previous Labour administration.

Some Green members during the debate said they also questioned the model of private developer-led housing delivery, and that going ahead they wanted to find alternative approaches to housing delivery.

Councillor Ed Sutton said he was a private renter and member of London Renter's Union. "It is clear we can't solely rely on private developers to deliver the affordable housing that people in Lewisham need," he said.

"We need an alternative to the developer-led housing model, local councils need the money to build and retrofit social housing, the power to implement rent controls to keep private rent in cheque and an end to right to buy so we can keep hold of social housing stock."

Mark Kowalski, councillor for Lewisham Central which includes the Shopping Centre, shared a similar sentiment. "People have lost faith in developers, too many residents have watched developments elsewhere in London get approved on the strength of promises about affordable housing, amenities, and community space, only to see those promises quietly reduced when construction starts," he said.

"What people are against is a scheme that ignores the needs of people in the borough."

Their statements were applauded by those in the gallery.

Towards the end of the debate Shrivastava repeated what he had announced earlier that day on social media, that he did not agree with the development but he believes the only thing the council could do now with this was use the CPO to negotiate more affordable housing.

But the council faces a potential challenge with using the CPO as leverage, it may be a roadblock for the development but it is not the only route Landsec can take.

The developer could deal directly with Lewisham House or even go ahead with its plans adjusted to not include that land.

Neither the Labour nor Green administration has accepted the request from Lewisham House No, 1 (LHN1) to negotiate. The owners say they offer sustainable regeneration with a £6.2m contribution towards the council's social housing target.

LHN1 raised a complaint relating to the draft S106 in April 2026 which alleged that the agreed plans were non-compliant and there had been a "lack of meaningful engagement". This was rejected by planning officers.

At the close of the debate, the council voted simply to note the petition as no executive decision was scheduled to be taken, with Labour councillors abstaining.

Faris Luke said: "The Lewisham People's Assembly (LPA) is disappointed by comments from certain Green Party members who supported the redevelopment, including cabinet member Shireen Asaw, a vocal supporter of the SLSC campaign pre-election.

"It is also frustrating to see that our arguments were not effectively engaged with.

"We stand by our comments that engaging with existing mechanisms offers little hope in gaining more affordable housing .."

Luke clarified the campaign's rejection of GLA grant subsidies for this project, which campaigners argue would serve to de-risk Landsec's development which they say is projected to make a £500m loss.

But he said they were open to use of GLA grant funding where social housing goals could be guaranteed.

"The LPA wants to see, regardless of sector, 50% affordable housing as a bare minimum for redevelopment projects in our borough," Luke added.

"The LPA warns that the Green Party is trying to implement Labour Party policies that will clearly fail to deliver significant social housing, and will only make the party complicit in Landsec's reckless gamble.

"We would like the council to stand with the people of Lewisham and not support these plans and instead seek out alternative regeneration strategies in the area."

Sign-up for our free weekly newsletter - Salamander News in your inbox