Setback hits Elephant plan

The £1.5billion redevelopment of the Elephant and Castle, featuring towers by Lord Foster and the Japanese architect Ken Yeang, is back on the drawing board after Southwark council's development partner withdrew.

The partner, Southwark Land Regeneration, a consortium led by developers Frogmore and Godfrey Bradman, has pulled out because it could not agree on details of profit sharing.

SLR was first chosen by Southwark as its partner in summer 2000, and the agreement was due to be finalised last September.

SLR thought they could take over and redevelop all the scheme's housing element, including the massive Heygate Estate whose tenants were to be rehoused. However, the council's position was that it would control all the housing and then hand it over to a housing association. Now it is looking for another private sector partner