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estate renewal

Time to bite the ballot

One of the main reasons Sadiq Khan won the race to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor over the favourite Tessa Jowell was their respective stances on estate renewal. He took inspiration from Islington council’s approach, who rejected large scale demolition and insisted on extensive involvement of residents.

Jowell recruited Andrew Adonis, who had written essays urging large scale demolition and redevelopment to create ‘city villages’. At Labour hustings this idea went down like a lead balloon, and it was an early indication that Jowell would struggle to win selection.

When Khan won, his election manifesto was clear: “estate regeneration only takes place where there is resident support, based on full and transparent consultation, and that demolition is only permitted where it does not result in a loss of social housing, or where all other options have been exhausted, with full rights to return for displaced tenants and a fair deal for leaseholders”.

This issue is a touchstone for many Labour activists – who were dismayed when the first edition of the Mayor’s good practice guide on estate regeneration downplayed balloting residents on regeneration schemes. It was widely written up as a u-turn. Political pressure over the issue reached the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who did not equivocate in his 2017 conference speech: “councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place”.

Corbyn also repeated Khan’s commitment to one-for-one replacement of existing homes, and Khan has shown he holds that dear by refusing Barnet’s Grahame Park regeneration which would have meant fewer social rented homes. Now he has updated the regeneration guide, u-turning on a u-turn and now requiring ballots as a condition of GLA funding.

Council leaderships with ambitious building plans which involve demolition (and that is not just Haringey) now face having to win ballots, many for schemes long planned. Many of them will be difficult campaigns, but everyone involved should remember that deep down, everyone agrees that estate regeneration can be done positively: Sadiq Khan hasn’t committed to ballots because he wants the schemes voted down. He’s committed to them because it means regeneration schemes must be designed to be popular.

To find out more about our work on estate regeneration and ballots, email us here.

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What people say about us…

Smooth operation

Many thanks for last night: a very smooth operation!

Message was very welcome

Was a great result – especially to receive unanimous approval! Many thanks also for you and your team’s work in the run up to the committee. Getting those messages across really helped and was evident by the feedback given by members on both sides of the political spectrum … notably on the successfully engagement with residents and how the scheme responded accordingly. Message was very welcome!

On point

Harry was on point and has been the whole way through. We are all very chuffed. We are already preparing for another rather testing application on another site and you can be certain that we will engage you

Appreciated

Thanks Richard, your help has been much appreciated. Will let you know when the next job comes up!

Big guns!

Thanks for your and the team’s help. It was good to know we had the proverbial big guns in our armoury!

You kept calm

Many thanks for that: your team did very well, and kept a lot calmer than me! Matt was a sensible wise head, as was Alex, but he also made me think succinctly for the questions and how to answer, which is a great skill to try and acquire. Especially for someone as verbose as me!

A unanimous approval

Councillors praised both officers and the developer on their work and engagement.

A unanimous approval 5-0

With your help

Really pleased to hear the news this evening

With your help, we got it through !!!!

Best Regards!

Truly excellent example

Great news that we approved 60 houses on green belt last night.

It was tremendous that the Chair said that this was a “truly excellent example of good consultation…”

Gave me more confidence

Thank you – we were both somewhat surprised given the level of objections but in fact the committee hardly discussed the scheme at all before consenting it.

Thanks to your team for preparing me well for the committee which certainly gave me more confidence.

A big relief

Thank you. A big relief. As I am sure you can appreciate, we are delighted!

Your team did a great job, especially Matt who was integral.

I look forward to catching up soon.

Unanimous

196 flats approved unanimously, thanks to all involved.

Professional and effective

I wanted to thank you and all at Thorncliffe for managing the consultation process so professionally and effectively. This, without doubt, played a crucial role in gaining the approval.

Once again, all our thanks.

Was a good result

Cant remember the last time I got anything through unanimously!

Was a good result, it’s the right scheme for the site and of course we had a great team including yourselves working on it,

First class troops

Richard. Your troops did a first class job as always. Many thanks

Praise for communityUK

Well done for the way you presented tonight’s online consultation. I thought it was an excellent format.

Great result last night

I just wanted to say thank you again for all your help with the great result last night.

You have been tremendous and it is much appreciated.

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