His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visits Packington Estate

The Hyde Group and Rydon proudly welcomed His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, to the award winning Packington Estate in Islington.

The Prince toured a part of Packington Estate meeting staff and residents involved in its continued regeneration; young people who had completed the Get Into Construction programme run by his youth charity The Prince’s Trust and Rydon; as well as Arlington Square residents who were tending their communal garden nearby.

Amongst the young people he met who had completed the Get Into Construction were Yaseen Pathan, 21, and Georgia Hardie, 23.

Yaseen continues to work with Rydon at Packington as a site management trainee and Georgia, who recently won a Pride of Britain Award for her incredible life journey, works for Rydon subcontractor SDP Solutions.

The visit marked the launch of the latest report from The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community. ‘Housing Communities: What people want’ seeks to show that community consultation is key in creating places people value and cherish.

The report notes: “a far better model of estate regeneration is needed, one which benefits existing residents, which genuinely welcomes feedback into the design process itself and which produces housing which speaks to preferences and housing need. Our work on housing estates has identified a desire for quality green space, better integration and a strong neighbourhood identity”.

Elaine Bailey, Hyde’s Chief Executive, said: “Packington’s regeneration has been praised as an exemplar re-development project and has won many awards. We are honoured to have His Royal Highness as our guest today, and show him how a previously notorious estate, isolated from the surrounding community, has been transformed into a place where people want to live.”

Bernice Ramchandani, Hyde’s Head of Construction (London), said: “From the outset, regeneration work on Packington estate was led by residents who voted to transfer the estate from Islington Council to Hyde in December 2006. When the regeneration is complete in 2018 all existing resident s will have been re-housed, with a further 300 new homes available for outright sale or shared ownership, making it a true mixed community.”

Hyde and The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community also hosted a Housing Communities roundtable discussion at The Arc community centre on Packington Estate to explore best practice, key obstacles and solutions to successful estate regeneration.

Chaired by Carol Carter, Hyde’s Group Director of Housing, it brought together experts in the UK’s housing and development fields to discuss how estate regeneration can be achieved more sensitively, successfully and sustainably - both economically and socially.

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