Another turn out to put those of national elections to shame saw residents overwhelmingly back an estate regeneration scheme in London.
The ballot on the future for Barnet’s Douglas Bader Park Estate a 90.5% turnout – with 75.4 per cent voting in favour of the proposals.
Earlier this month – as reported by 24housing – the turn out over the regeneration of Poplar’s Teviot Estate topped 81% with 86% support.
In Barnet, residents backed plans for the mixed tenure development, which will be delivered by Home Group alongside Hill Partnerships.
Home Group’s plans to regenerate the estate and deliver over 660 new homes have been supported throughout by customers, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Barnet Council.
Part of those plans include, at the very least, a like-for-like re-provision of the social and affordable rented homes that are currently on the estate, which totals over 270 – 245 for social and 26 for affordable.
This maintains Home Group’s number of social rented homes, which account for over 80% of its overall portfolio.
The other 389 new homes, which will be offered for sale, will be a welcome addition to the number of homes needed in Barnet and Greater London.
Mark Henderson, Chief Executive of Home Group, said: “Our customers, quite simply, are at the heart of everything we do, so it’s absolutely right that they should be the ones to decide what happens to their estate and their community.
“We’re extremely pleased indeed that they have decided to back our plans on how to take the estate and its community forward.
“We will work closely with our customers and continue to listen to them throughout the lifetime of the redevelopment.
“I think it’s widely agreed that Douglas Bader Park is in need of updating and is no longer meeting the needs and expectations of our customers.
“This is a community which deserves an estate that is fit-for-purpose in this modern day.
“The feedback we have had to date from Barnet Council and the GLA has been really positive and we look forward to submitting our plans for approval later this year.”
Douglas Bader Park regeneration is part of a new process established by London’s Mayor in 2018, which introduced conditions on major estate regeneration schemes.
Essentially, developments involving demolition of any social rented homes must have a ballot of residents to approve the regeneration before it can receive subsidy from the Greater London Authority.
“This process introduced by the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, where customers are the ones to decide on major regeneration schemes, is absolutely right.
“It’s a process that we are going to introduce across all our major regeneration schemes – not just those in London,” Henderson said.
