SIX prefab homes on an estate have been given listed status - a move which could scupper demolition plans.

The homes on Persant Road in Catford’s Excalibur estate have been given Grade II status by the Government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport.

Grade II listings are viewed to be of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them.

Lewisham Council, which owns 80 percent of the estate, wanted to hand over the estate to London and Quadrant housing associatin.

The site would then be redeveloped to bring the houses up to Decent Homes Standard - a Government benchmark for the quality of housing.

But residents on the estate, which contains 187 pre-fabricated homes and a prefab church built by German PoWs in the 1940s, had been divided over the plans.

The Worried Tenants Group was set up three years ago to fight the demolition.

Jim Blackender, 55, a group member who lives on the estate in Pelinore Road, said: “We’re very pleased at the news but for us it’s just another rung on the ladder.

“Until the entire estate gets some sort of protection we won’t rest.

“If people don’t stand up and fight for their heritage there’ll be nothing left.”

He said: “The listings prove the historic importance of the rest of the prefabs too.

“We say this gives us the recommendation we need to push forward now for a conservation area on the whole estate.”

But Kay Sim, 63, who has lived in Mordred Road for 21 years, said: “I’m not happy.

“A lot of people now are really getting fed up. If this had not kicked off we could be well on our way by now.

“The people that wanted listed buildings should go and live in them.

“In five or six years time we’ll all sitting in our nice and cosy new houses while there’s are falling down around their ears.”

Ms Sim says the homes are difficult to keep warm and are in a poor state of repair.

She said: “I’ve had more water inside than there’s been rain outside.

“I just want out as quick as I can go and to get somewhere warm.”

English Heritage had recommended 21 of the homes for listing by the department but only six were listed by the department because they were in the "least-altered portion" of the estate.

The department also praised Excalibur as "the largest surviving post-war prefab estate in England", deemed to be of historic importance and special archaelogical interest.

Councillor for Whitefoot ward Cllr Daniel Houghton said: “It throws a bit of a spanner in the works in terms of trying to redevelop the estate.

“What we want is for London and Quadrant to go away and be as quick as possible in coming up with some revised plans.”

A spokesman for Lewisham Council said: “The council is in the process of contacting residents who live in these newly listed buildings, to discuss the impact of the listing status and what it will mean to them in terms of work they can or cannot carry out on their properties.”