Three reasons why Corbyn’s gentrification ballots won’t work

Jeremy Corbyn outlined his vision for the country yesterday during a 75-minute speech to Labour Party conference. What caught my ear was his call for councils to hold ballots ahead of regeneration projects. 

A Labour government would guarantee that if your estate is earmarked for redevelopment then the council would have to run a ballot and win the vote of local residents before any building takes place. 

Although gentrification is occurring up and down our country it would be amiss to not recognise that it is most prevalent in London. It would also be amiss to not recognise that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has already addressed the issue in the draft good practice guide to estate regeneration. 

In the document, Khan makes clear that regeneration should only happen where “there has been full and transparent consultation and resident engagement”. However, it falls short on singing the praises of holding ballots and says: “Where undertaken, surveys and meetings should be repeated as proposals develop so that a ‘real time’ assessment of the acceptability of what is being proposed is enabled. This highlights a potential reason for caution around using ballots or votes, since they can risk turning a complex set of issues that affects different people in different ways over many years into a simple ‘yes/no’ decision at a single point in time.”

What is clear is holding ballots just won’t cut it.

Although I would welcome a ballot being held every time a project came forward because running campaigns and influencing votes is at the core of what I do as a consultant I don’t see this having many benefits to the residents Labour are trying to empower.

You only need to see how referendums on Neighbourhood Plans play out to see that often poorer people are blocked out of the decision-making process.

Neighbourhood Plans were introduced through the Localism Act 2011 as means to give communities “direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area.”

The issue is deprived areas are missing out. Last year ResPublica found that although more than 200 Neighbourhood Plans have been created the vast majority are in more affluent areas. Caroline Julian, deputy director of ResPublica, said at the time: “Deprived communities across Britain are missing out on the chance to improve their surroundings which we know has a range of knock on benefits”.

Granted, Labour might be of the view that holding a referendum within the deprived area will give a voice to the most deprived people I still think there are other reasons why this is a bad idea.

Firstly, what better way is there to influence planning decisions then ensure a ballot goes in favour of the development? Council’s up and down the country would be employing the likes of me to ensure their vision of regeneration is controlled.

Second, and this goes back to Khan’s draft good practice guide, to hold a ballot over simplifies the situation. Imagine if you will that you are at home and someone from the council knocks your door to ask if you’d like a new kitchen, bathroom, doors and windows but you’ll have to either move out for a period of time or live with the noise and disruption. You are going to be suspicious and you might also think you are happy with your home as it is. What I can guarantee though is you would feel appalled at only being given the option of a yes/no answer. 

Thirdly, haven’t we all had enough of referendums? We democratically elect individuals to represent us. I would dare say that when it comes to this issue there should only be one ballot that counts and that’s the one on local election polling day. Elect councillors who you believe will listen to your concerns, who are qualified to objectively weigh up the issues, and who make decisions based on material considerations. 

To me, this policy stinks of a further layer of bureaucracy that will ultimately tie up real progress and change being made in deprived areas. Instead, Labour should be looking at the root causes of people’s dissatisfaction with what they see as the gentrification of their community. Instead of holding an election before a council can introduce changes that would provide better quality homes and neighbourhoods, Labour should suggest ways in which councils can calm the conflicts that often arise between residents and local authorities or housing associations. I believe that the approach Khan has outlined in his draft good practice guide to estate regeneration should be the starting position to do this and I look forward to reading the final recommendations when they are released.