Lewisham Council has established seven draft principles for a residents’ charter, including involving residents in the design process and more regular communication during estate regeneration.
This comes after the council made balloting residents a part of council policy – a new requirement needed to receive funding for developments from the Mayor of London.
The residents’ charter will be applicable to all residents who will be directly impacted by any council development work that involves the demolition of homes to facilitate the building of new homes, according to council documents.
The principles include:
Balloting residents before any estate regeneration
A guarantee to building more homes for social rent
Communicating with residents at least once every three months before the ballot and during design and construction processes and presenting transparent information that is accessible to everyone
Including residents in the design through a residents’ steering group
If you are a council tenant who wishes to stay, you will be guaranteed a new home at a social rent level, with the same tenancy conditions that you have today and a Housing Needs Assessment will ensure you are provided with a home that matches your requirements
If you are a resident leaseholder or freeholder who wishes to stay, you will be guaranteed to remain in home ownership
But councillors were concerned that balloting before plans are made might see residents make uneducated choices about what they were accepting or rejecting.
Cllr Silvana Kelleher, a member of the housing select committee, said: “My concern is where we are doing an early ballot, I and my fellow residents might say, ‘yes in principle we will go for this but in seeing it we think it’s actually horrendous and think no we don’t want to do it, but we have already voted.’
“I want to know what protections are in place for this,” she said.
A Lewisham Council officer said residents were protected from this in the charter, and would be able to contribute to the design of developments.
He said the ballot would also mean residents could hold the council to account.
“We will only receive funding [from the Mayor of London] if we stick to the terms of the ballot,” he said.
The council officer said the principles were not final, and the exact ways they would be applied still needed to be developed.
The draft charter will be open for public consultation in a few weeks, according to Lewisham Council documents.
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