Bletchley's Lakes Estate rebuild is one of six finalists for the best big regeneration in London and the South East. Winners are named on 24 November.

The rebuilding of the Lakes Estate in Bletchley is a finalist in two national housing awards. Winners are announced on Tuesday 24 November.

The Inside Housing Development Awards 2026 shortlist names Milton Keynes City Council twice:

  • Best regeneration project, £21m+, London and South East, for the Lakes Estate regeneration. It is one of six finalists.
  • Best development team, local authority, for the council’s housing delivery and regeneration team. It is one of ten finalists.

The ceremony is at the InterContinental O2 in London.

Who it is up against

Milton Keynes is the only finalist from outside London in the regeneration category. The other five are:

  • Goldfinch Point, London (Anchor)
  • Wimbourne Street, London (Higgins Partnership and Hackney Council)
  • One Clapham, London (Peabody)
  • Tustin Estate regeneration phase 1 (Southwark Council)
  • Peel, North West Quarter (Vistry, Brent Council, Home Group and Child Graddon Lewis)

In the council team category, MK is up against teams from Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Caerphilly, Dacorum, Enfield, Mid Devon and Southwark, plus Cambridge Investment Partnership and Sempra Homes.

What has been built

The council’s announcement of the shortlisting says families have moved into almost 200 new homes on the estate in the last year. The chair of the Lakes Estate Renewal Forum, the residents’ group, put the number at 183.

Alongside the homes, the council lists:

  • new roads and updated green spaces
  • community courtyards
  • four new children’s play parks
  • a new health hub, with funding agreed and opening due in early 2027

The scheme goes back to a residents’ ballot in 2018. The council says 93% of those who voted backed demolishing Serpentine Court and redeveloping the whole estate. The flats there were ageing and becoming expensive to repair.

Serpentine Court itself has not gone yet. In September we reported that its demolition has a £6.3m budget and will go to the builder already on site without a new tender.

What it means for you

A shortlisting is not a prize, and the council entered the awards itself. What it does show is that judges looking at schemes across London and the South East picked Bletchley’s out of the entries.

For residents still waiting for a council home, the bigger news is in the same release. The council says it is the 15th largest council house builder in the country. It also says it could build up to 600 more council homes with money from the government’s £39bn, 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme. Our report on how long large families wait for a council home shows why that matters.

We will report the result on 24 November.