‘Let residents get their hands on cash for estate regeneration plans’

Green Party politician Sian Berry.

Residents should be allocated funds from a £140 million pot of money to draw up their own schemes for regenerating their estate, a campaigning politician has demanded.

Sian Berry, a Green Party politician and member of the London Assembly, said Sadiq Khan should “step in where the government has shut out estate residents from deciding the future of their homes”.

She wants plans to be “community led” and recently visited the Northwold Estate in Clapton to hear firsthand from its residents about the potential impact of proposals by landlord the Guinness Partnership to bulldoze some homes there.

Berry pointed to what she said was the unfairness of rules stipulating government cash for regenerating estates was available only to landlords and councils, saying these amounted to a “kick in the teeth” for residents.

The fund will provide experts and help to plan new buildings and demolition, but residents with their own ideas will not be able to apply.

Estate leaseholders and tenants “know the areas they live in better than anyone, don’t want to see their homes demolished and their ideas need funding too”, Berry said.

She added: “I have been pushing the Mayor to support community-led housing in London and to take up my idea of a Community Homes Unit of experts at City Hall.

“The Mayor should provide expertise and grants for residents to get involved in planning at an early stage and develop viable proposals and take ownership of their estates.”

The panel of experts who produced estates regeneration guidance was co-chaired by Lord Heseltine.

When the funding was initially announced in February Lord Heseltine said: “I am clear that this has to be locally led and we must work with the residents of such estates.

“I now want to see local communities coming forward with innovative ideas to achieve desirable neighbourhoods that local people can be proud of.”

In an answer to a question from Berry about the issue estate residents and the potential for them to contribute planning ideas, Mayor Khan said last month: “Support for community-led housing will be reflected in a number of ways, including through our forthcoming 2016-21 Affordable Homes Programme.”