Hill Signs £45m Deal for Next Phase of Clarion’s Merton Regeneration, High Path Keeps Moving
- Michael Ghobrial
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Hill Group has signed a £45 million contract with Clarion Housing Group to deliver the next phase of the High Path estate regeneration in South Wimbledon, part of Clarion’s multi‑billion pound Merton Regeneration Project. The deal moves the long-running programme into its latest construction phase, adding several hundred new homes and further reshaping one of the borough’s most scrutinised council estate redevelopments. For Clarion, it is another step towards replacing outdated housing stock with a denser, mixed‑tenure neighbourhood. For Hill, it deepens an already significant pipeline in London estate regeneration.
Project Overview
High Path is one of three estates, alongside Eastfields and Ravensbury, being rebuilt under Clarion’s Merton Regeneration Project, a long‑term initiative that will ultimately replace around 1,000 existing homes and deliver over 2,200 additional units across the borough.
Client / Developer: Clarion Housing Group (through Latimer, its development arm)
Main contractor: Hill Group
Location: High Path estate, South Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton
Contract value (current phase): £45 million
Overall regeneration value: Approximately £1.3–1.8 billion across Merton estates (High Path, Eastfields, Ravensbury)
Homes across High Path on completion: Up to around 2,272 homes under revised consents
Estate-wide outcome: Replacement of outdated council stock, significant increase in total homes, creation of a new park, community facilities and commercial space on Merton High Street and Morden Road
This latest contract focuses on one of the remaining phases of High Path, advancing the transformation from low‑rise post‑war blocks to a denser, mixed‑use urban quarter close to South Wimbledon Underground station.
Delivery Partners and Key Stakeholders
The Merton regeneration is a long‑term partnership between Clarion, the local authority and a rotating cast of delivery partners, with Hill increasingly central on the construction side.
Clarion Housing Group: The UK’s largest housing association and master‑developer for the Merton estates, leading on resident engagement, planning strategy and long‑term ownership
Latimer (Clarion’s development arm): Responsible for development management, phasing and design coordination across High Path
Hill Group: Main contractor for the newly signed £45 million phase, adding to a growing estate regeneration portfolio across London and the South East
London Borough of Merton: Planning authority and political sponsor of the regeneration, balancing housing delivery with local concerns about scale, height and density
PRP Architects / BPTW (design roles across phases): Masterplanners and architects on different phases of the High Path programme
Existing High Path residents and residents’ groups: Key stakeholders who have shaped the scheme through multiple years of consultation, including contentious debates over demolition versus refurbishment
Greater London Authority (GLA): Funding and policy backdrop, with affordable housing grant and London Plan policy on estate regeneration shaping scheme economics and design
The partnership has weathered several rounds of consultation, legal challenge and design evolution, reflecting the political and social sensitivity of estate regeneration in London.
Construction and Technical Details
High Path is being rebuilt in phases to allow residents to move directly into new homes on or near the estate, avoiding wholesale decant to distant locations. Earlier phases have already delivered new blocks and public realm; Hill’s latest phase builds on that physical context.
Key technical and urban design features from the wider High Path plan, which frame this contract, include:
Replacement of low‑rise, poor‑quality post‑war housing with modern apartments and maisonettes, each with private outdoor space (balconies, terraces or gardens)
Creation of a new neighbourhood park, featuring seasonal planting, play trails, seating and a civic square capable of hosting community events
New community centre and flexible commercial and retail space on Merton High Street and Morden Road, supporting a more active street frontage and local employment
A street network re‑planned as tree‑lined, pedestrian‑friendly routes, improving legibility and safety compared with the original estate layout
An on‑site energy centre serving the wider estate, reflecting the shift towards more efficient, centralised low‑carbon heating systems
Buildings stepping up in height towards key frontages (including blocks rising to double‑digit storeys near South Wimbledon station), with detailed work required to address concerns about scale and overshadowing
For Hill, the phase will involve complex logistics within a live neighbourhood: working around occupied homes, maintaining resident access, and coordinating with existing and emerging infrastructure such as the energy centre and new public spaces.
Timeline
High Path’s regeneration has unfolded over more than a decade, with this latest contract representing another step in a long sequence rather than a standalone scheme.
2019: Merton grants outline planning permission for Clarion’s Merton Regeneration Project, covering High Path, Eastfields and Ravensbury; up to 2,800 new homes approved at this stage
2019–2022: Early phases of High Path built out, delivering initial new homes for existing residents on land not currently used for housing
June 2023: Merton’s planning committee approves revised plans for the final four phases of High Path, enabling up to around 2,272 homes, an uplift of 568 units over the original outline consent, with around 40% designated as affordable
2024–2025: Further design and consultation work progresses; residents and campaign groups continue to scrutinise building heights and density
Early 2026: Hill signs a £45 million contract with Clarion to deliver the next phase of High Path, bringing another substantial slice of the masterplan into delivery
2027 and beyond: Later phases, including Phase 4, are scheduled to start, with full completion of High Path stretching towards the end of the decade
The regeneration of High Path is therefore best understood as a rolling programme, with Hill’s new phase sitting in the middle of a much larger timeline.
Strategic Importance
The High Path regeneration matters on three interconnected levels: local housing quality, London‑wide housing numbers and industry‑wide questions about estate regeneration.
Locally, the case for intervention has long been accepted. Many of the original homes were approaching the end of life, suffering from poor thermal performance, overcrowding and layout problems. Replacing those units with modern, more spacious homes and better public space is not a cosmetic exercise. It directly addresses living‑standard deficits that had become hard to justify in a modern city.
At the city scale, High Path is one of the largest single contributors to Merton’s housing numbers and a significant piece of Clarion’s wider London pipeline. The uplift in total homes to more than 2,200 units across the estate, with a substantial affordable component, feeds directly into London’s ability to meet its housing targets without pushing more development to fringe locations poorly served by transport. High Path sits next to South Wimbledon Underground station and close to Morden Road tram stop. Few sites offer that combination of scale and connectivity.
For the industry, the project remains a live test case for how estate regeneration can be delivered politically and socially. The planning history, consultation rounds and public criticism of building height and density demonstrate that even well‑intentioned schemes face real opposition. Hill’s new contract will be delivered under that spotlight, with construction quality, disruption management and resident communication all likely to be judged more harshly than on a typical scheme.
Writer's Opinion
The latest £45 million phase award to Hill is a reminder that estate regeneration is not a sprint, nor is it a neatly contained project. It is a rolling negotiation between past, present and future, between the failing housing stock that exists, the homes and public spaces that could replace it, and the communities that have to live through the transition.
High Path illustrates both the promise and the messiness of that process. On paper, replacing 1,000 ageing homes with more than 2,200 modern units, a new park, community centre and commercial heart beside a Tube station is unarguably rational. In day‑to‑day reality, it involves demolition, decant, dust, cranes and years of uncertainty for residents. Hill now inherits that tension on site. Its success will not be measured solely by delivery on time and budget, but by how residents feel about their homes and streets when the hoardings finally come down.
There is also a harder question the industry needs to keep asking itself. Estate regeneration schemes like High Path are often held up as proof that we can increase housing numbers while improving conditions for existing communities. That is sometimes true, and Clarion’s commitment to rehousing existing residents is real. But the uplift in private units is not incidental. It is the financial engine that makes replacement viable. The test of High Path will not be how many CGI‑ready streetscapes we can produce, but whether households on low incomes feel more secure, better housed and genuinely part of the new neighbourhood in ten years’ time. Hill’s £45 million phase is one chapter in that story, not the conclusion.
