Lend Lease said yesterday (01/12/2009) that its investment in Elephant & Castle would be “small” under the deal agreed to develop the area with Southwark Council’s Lib Dem/Tory Executive last night. The developer’s share price surged by 9 per cent following the news.

The Lib Dem Council Leader Nick Stanton described the deal as ‘excellent value for money’, but Labour councillors are asking for more details of the deal to be released in light of Lend Lease’s admission. The financial details of the deal were discussed by the Executive in ‘closed’ session, meaning that they will remain secret unless the Lib Dem leadership declassifies them.

Southwark Labour’s Leader, Cllr Peter John said:

“Cllr Stanton says that this is a good deal for Southwark’s taxpayers, but when the developer says its own investment will be small and the council refuses to release any details of the finances, how are residents supposed to be confident about it?

“The community has been left out of this deal for too long; it’s just not acceptable for local people to be left in the dark about what is happening to their area and their homes. I’m deeply concerned that it will now be the Lend Lease shareholders and not local residents and businesses which benefit most from the regeneration.

"There are only a couple of details we can be certain of, and they're all bad. The community in Elephant & Castle was originally promised new leisure facilities and the demolition of the shopping centre as part of the regeneration, but these plans have been indefinitely shelved. It would be simply unacceptable for Lend Lease to put little into the regeneration and walk away with a fat paycheque at the end of the day.”