Estate Watch: A new resource for communities going through estate demolition
Over 35,000 homes on London council estates are earmarked for demolition. Estate Watch is a new website seeking to ensure tenants and residents have the information, tools and resources to fight their corner. Click here to visit the site and explore the map.
As of 2018, councils and housing associations seeking Mayoral funding to knock down and replace their existing stock with more than 150 new homes must first seek majority resident support through a ballot.
Even so, 44 such schemes across London have been exempted and the Mayor appears to be overlooking landlords conducting ballots on terms that go against his guidance. This despite the Mayor’s Estate Regeneration Guidance, which was supposed to give council tenants and leaseholders a better deal.
Tenants must be fully informed and have meaningful choices before we get to a ballot. We’ve joined with Just Space to establish Estate Watch in part because of concerns that that is not happening.
The new website provides tenants with key facts, tools and case studies to fight their corner and to try to engage on more equal terms in discussion about the future of their homes and communities.
This includes research by academics at University of Leicester (UOL) and Kings College London (KCL) showing that long term uncertainty, depression and displacement were common experiences among both tenants and leaseholders undergoing demolition.
To sign up for Estate Watch mailing list updates, click here and scroll down.
#EstateWatch Online Conversation
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
To mark the launch of the website, we are encouraging tenants and leaseholders who are going through or have been through demolition to share their experiences on Twitter using the hashtag #EstateWatch
How has your life been affected?
Did you feel listened to?
Were you offered a meaningful alternative to demolition?
Wednesday 24th June @ 10am Q&A WITH LORETTA LEES
From 10am to 11am next Wednesday, we’ll be hosting a live Twitter Q&A session with Loretta Lees, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester and lead researcher on regeneration and gentrification. Please join us then using the hashtag #EstateWatch @LorettaCLees and @londontenants or @justspace7
Not on Twitter but got a question for Loretta? Email zoe-comms@londontenants.org with your question beforehand and we will put it to her on your behalf.