London Mayor wants people to have a say on estate housing regeneration

People living in London should be at the heart of estate regeneration plans from an early stage to help shape the kind of homes they will live in, according to the city’s Mayor.

Mayor Sadiq Khan has published a draft good practice guide developed with councils, housing associations, and residents’ groups which recommends full rights for tenants to be rehoused on newly regenerated estates as well as a fair deal for leaseholders.

The Mayor has also set out his expectation that demolition and rebuilding should only go ahead after other ways of achieving the aim of regeneration have been considered, and where there is no loss of social housing.

The guidelines, which will be consulted on widely for three months, will be included in the conditions for future City Hall funding for new estate regeneration projects. The new standards will also be applied through the planning system where possible, as well as acting as a benchmark for boroughs, developers and housing associations to follow, even if the regeneration schemes do not involve the Mayor.

The good practice guide seeks to provide reassurance to Londoners living on housing estates that a guaranteed set of minimum standards should apply to the way that they are treated and consulted upon for any new estate regeneration scheme.

‘When done well, regeneration can be a positive way of protecting and improving housing estates in our great city. It offers the chance to improve the quality of housing and nearby public space, as well as building more and new affordable homes,’ said Khan.

‘Many councils are developing good practice in examples of estate regenerations across the capital. Through this guide, I want to bring together the approaches that have worked well.
I hope this guide will help to show that when local residents are involved from the start, and when key principles are followed, estate regeneration can help us build a city for all Londoners,’ he added.

Philip Glanville, Mayor of Hackney, explained that in his borough some 9,000 modern, high quality homes are earmarked to be built through estate regeneration providing new homes for existing tenants, expanding the supply of council housing and helping renters unable to afford to buy consider options for shared ownership.

‘We’ve shown by putting local people at the heart of regeneration plans from day one, we can build new developments with the support of everyone. But it’s vital that across the capital residents have the same guarantees of more genuinely affordable housing, the right to move into new properties at the same type of rent, real options for leaseholders to stay, access to independent advice and a fair compensation deal for the disruption and upheaval development causes,’ he explained.

Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, said his borough is trying to increase the housing supply across a mix of tenures, including through major regeneration projects on several estates. ‘We have learnt that when you include the community in the decision making process your regeneration plans are significantly improved and you are able to build the spirit of that community into your future plans,’ he added.