Ballots

Ballots came about in 2018 through campaigning that led to the publication of the Mayor of London’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration.

Most of the ballots that have taken place have resulted in residents voting in favour of demolition, but there are a number of problems with the ballot process. Ballots have been repeated after a NO vote until a positive ballot is obtained. Significant resources are often allocated to YES vote campaigns while NO vote campaigns are entirely unfunded. Estates have been decanted ahead of any ballot such that the majority of residents at the time of a ballot are temporary tenants, who are incentivised to vote YES on the promise of a secure tenancy.

Residents are often faced with a choice of redevelopment or continued decline in living conditions - refurbishment is never offered as an option on the ballot paper. ballot Landlord Offers routinely make it clear that if residents vote NO then their estates will receive only essential maintenance. They are also sometimes told that if they vote against the plans they will be subject to some kind of in-fill plans or rooftop homes being built on top of them. See some examples of this here.

To date, 51 estates have successfully applied for exemptions. This is almost half of the estates under threat of demolition in London. The Mayor also continues to turn a blind eye to ballots not offering refurbishment as a real choice or ballots offering a false choice.