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But despite the lush greenery of the reservoir alongside, nobody could describe the estate as a beauty spot. West Hendon is one of the borough's four most run-down estates, characterised by poor design and maintenance and ugly, vandalised open spaces.

Barnet council knows this must change. It has applied for £88.5m in the third round of arm's-length management organisation funding to help it bring its 12,000 homes up to the decent homes standard by 2010. But this sum would barely scratch the surface of the problem in some parts of the borough.

Other councils would look to regeneration subsidies to make up the shortfall but, because of the relative prosperity of the area, Barnet can get no public cash for regeneration. Meanwhile, tenants are unlikely to support stock transfer.

So the council has had to turn to other sources of funding. Making the most of the borough's assets – plenty of high-value land built at relatively low density and house prices nearly twice the national average – it is embarking on an ambitious £910m scheme to more than triple the number of homes on its four largest estates and sell two-thirds of them on the open market.

The germ of an idea
The project's seeds were sown in 1999, when Barnet's then-Labour-run council realised that pouring money into extensive repairs and maintenance on the estates would not solve the problems of a poor environment and failing local economy. "They had been struggling to make a difference for a while, and they felt they wanted a change," says Brian Reynolds, Barnet's present-day deputy chief executive.

The borough-wide initiative covers 3700 existing homes on the Stonegrove, Grahame Park, West Hendon and Dollis Valley estates. The council is not only targeting housing – major improvements to road and rail links, community facilities and the local landscape are also on the cards.

Other areas hoping to emulate the project, though, should be aware that it relies heavily on the area's particular characteristics, says Barnet's regeneration manager, Jonathan Lloyd-Owen. "It's got to be somewhere where people want to live and there's a high inherent land value. If you've already built at high density, this isn't a viable option."

To gain planning approval, Barnet must juggle the need to jump-start a failing local economy and increase green spaces, with tenant concerns and the London mayor's affordable housing targets. On the West Hendon estate, this means demolishing 680 units of run-down, medium-rise housing and replacing it with a combination of seven tower blocks and family homes with gardens. This will be done between 2005 and 2012. There will be 548 social rented and 132 lease and freehold homes for existing tenants and leaseholders, and 1325 for private sale. A further £17.7m will be spent rerouting a major road that runs through the top of the estate, overhauling the nearby railway station and creating local amenities expected to bring in £750,000 every year to subsidise high-quality services to tenants (see "Spend it like Barnet", below).

ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ upwards rather than outwards – up to 24 storeys – will increase green space by a third, but has been predictably controversial, says Lloyd-Owen. "There are definitely different camps. Some people were really quite emotional, but others wanted flats in the towers," he says.

West Hendon's tenants have been well and truly won over. Last December, 75% voted in favour of the project on a 63% turnout. All tenants will be rehoused directly in the first five years of the project, with families offered ground-floor flats with gardens. Registered social landlord Metropolitan Housing Trust, one of Barnet's partners, will assume ownership of the homes when they are built, but existing tenants can choose to remain council tenants with a temporary leaseback arrangement. Leaseholders will be offered a part share of one of the higher-value new properties, though they will not pay rent on the remainder, also owned by the RSL. "Some of the tenants have been apprehensive about Metropolitan," says Reynolds. "But if they prove themselves in the way they manage the first tranche of homes, we're confident the vast majority of our tenants will be happy to become Metropolitan tenants straight away."

Even with the tenants onside, Barnet must still get the go-ahead from the Greater London Authority and convince it to relax its goal that 50% of new homes built in the borough must be affordable. For the numbers to add up, Barnet wants a 60:40 slant towards private homes, and is keen to draw greater wealth into the area. "In a socioeconomic sense, the estate doesn't thrive," says Reynolds. "60:40 is a sustainable balance."

Aware that last-minute hiccups could set the project back a year or more, Lloyd-Owen says the council has been careful to keep the GLA happy throughout the planning. Other aspects of the deal may yet win the day by appealing to the mayor's pet subjects, such as the prioritisation of public transport issues: the GLA is impressed with plans to provide only eight parking spaces for every 10 homes and make £3.6m of improvements to the station, though it would prefer Transport for London to pick up the bill.

The council is in discussions with TfL about the station, and with English Nature in connection with £4.6m improvements to the Welsh Harp, a site of special scientific interest, and the surrounding environment. But Lloyd-Owen expects the talks to be lengthy and is loath to rely on funders for the project's success: "It may eventually come through, but we want a scheme that doesn't depend on imponderables."

He does feel that securing some outside funding would take some of the heat out of what he admits is a risky deal. Housebuilder Lovell dropped out of the partnership in April, daunted by the level of long-term risk, but Lloyd-Owen is confident the scheme can withstand the vagaries of a slowing housing market. "If you haven't got any public subsidy, you have to be really certain that your business plan is robust and can withstand quite a few challenges," he says. "Success does depend on the housing market, but the business plan is predicated on swings and roundabouts, so we should be able to weather the bad times."