Letter to One Housing regarding Juniper Estate demolition ballot

Dear Peter,

Ballot of Juniper Crescent residents over demolition

As you will recall, I have written to you previously about the handling of resident consultation at Gilbeys Yard by One Housing.

I have now been urgently contacted by the Juniper Crescent Tenants and Residents Association (TRA) about the letter they have received from One Housing announcing a residents’ ballot starting on 14 November 2022. Furthermore, they tell me that the Landlord Offer will only be released two weeks prior to the ballot on 28 October 2022.

This goes against the Mayor’s guidance in the GLA Capital Funding Guide, specifically:

“8.5.17. There must be an appropriate amount of time between publishing a Landlord Offer and holding a ballot. IPs must publish the Landlord Offer and offer documents must be distributed to eligible residents sufficiently in advance of the vote to allow them a reasonable amount of time to consider. The ballot period – during which time eligible residents may cast their vote – should run for at least 21 days to maximise voter turnout. The ballot period must end within six months of the date the Landlord Offer was published. [1]

In order to properly consider the Landlord Offer, residents and their representatives need sufficient time to be able to:

• ask questions and seek clarification for residents in different households and tenures, particularly for those who do not fit neatly into the categories described, and where wording in the published offer document may be ambiguous,
• request any further information and data from you that will help them to understand the terms being offered and the overall case you are making for the proposal, and 
• organise to meet together to consider it in discussion with their neighbours.

Therefore, on behalf of the residents of Juniper Crescent, could you delay the ballot by at least three months to give them a reasonable amount of time to examine and understand the Landlord Offer?

Additionally, I would like to ask that you respond to the requests by the Juniper Crescent TRA to select their own Independent Tenant and Leaseholder Advisor and create a Resident Steering Group in accordance with Better Homes for Local People: The Mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration.[2]

Yours sincerely,

Sian Berry

Green Party Member of the London Assembly