CONTENTS – 1 Newlon’s Answers to Old Barnsbury Questsions – 2 Official Residents’ Association – 3 Residents’ Charter – 4 Additional Forum – 5 Defining residency/non-residency – 6 Parking after redevelopment – 7 Considerate Construction? – 8 Service Charges – 9 Section 20 notices
Hello, here is another Old Barnsbury update. There is a lot of overlap with New Barnsbury still so we have duplicated a lot of Annie’s excellent post here for you. all. Reps have attended three important meetings. One leaseholder-specific Q&A with Newlon and Source (5th Aug) requested by us – thank you to the 25 leaseholders who attended. Also two meetings with other residents to help set up an official Residents’ Association (12th Aug, 16th Sept). The key information is summarised for you below.
As always you can contacts us through barnsburyleaseholders@gmail.com
- Newlon’s Answers to Old Barnsbury Questsions
This document contains a list of questions posed to Newlon during the August leaseholder presentation, with Newlon’s responses added:
Please let us know if you have further questions or need clarifications.
- NEW! Official Residents’ Association
Do you feel strongly that Newlon should be held to their promises during the transformation?
Look out for upcoming info about joining the new Residents’ Association – and if you can, give a few hours a month to help run it.
Everyone on the estate (social tenants/leaseholders, plus non-resident leaseholders and their private tenants) will soon be receiving a flyer about the new Residents’ Association. It’s crucial that lots of us get involved, so Newlon knows that we are an estate full of people who care about what happens around our homes. Come and make your individual voice heard!
Over the past few months, a small group have been working with Newlon on the Terms of Reference for the Res Assoc, and trying to make sure that it will have real influence into the future.
Right now, a website is being set up, and Newlon has made £500 available to help with set-up and running costs. Emma Preston-Dunlop (Newlon Resident Engagement Officer) will help us by chairing meetings for 6 months, and Source will continue to oversee the process and advise us as needed.
If you have skills that could help the Residents’ Association, such as fundraising, sponsorship, WordPress, MailChimp, let us know on barnsburyleaseholders@gmail.com
At the next meeting in October, a small mixed group of residents and leaseholders will negotiate with Newlon how the Residents’ Charter will be shaped, and how the Residents’ Association will make sure Newlon keeps its promises. More updates to follow, including info on how to join future meetings.
- Residents’ Charter
What does it actually mean? – The Draft Residents’ Charter was included with the Offer Document back in February. We were all confused about where it came from, whether it was binding on Newlon, and how to change it if we were unhappy with something in it. The Residents’ Association still has many questions about the Charter, as do leaseholders.
UNANSWERED – If the Residents’ Charter is owned by residents, why would Newlon’s proposals for charging non-resident leaseholders on Old Barns be included in it? If the Residents’ Charter is a non-binding draft document, how is it holding Newlon to anything? Will the Residents’ Charter become binding after it is submitted as part of the planning application? If Newlon breaks their commitments, who can residents call on for help?
Here is a link to a Newlon presentation that gives an overview of the charter Barnsbury Estate Transformation Residents Charter Overview
If you have any questions you would like raised at the meeting please send them to barnsburyleaseholders@gmail.com and hopefully they will be able to work through them in a Q&A format and report back on the answers.
Open questions currently are:
- What is the purpose of the Charter? Please be explicit about the role it plays in the planning process etc, if any, as well as other areas.
- Who owns it? What do you mean by ownership?
- What role do you propose for the informal Residents’ Association in respect of the Charter and how will this work?
- Does the Charter play a role outside the NB Transformation/OB Refurb process? If so, what is this?
- Source has been proposed as the guardian for it:
- What is meant by this?
- They are not a permanent fixture so what happens when they go?
- What is its legal status (it was issued in draft, alongside the Offer letter which has a different legal status).
- What happens if either Newlon or a resident (of any flavour including NRLs) transgress any aspects of the charter individually or collectively?
- Who decides what goes in the Charter and what does not?
- When will the current version be made final vs draft and what is the mechanism for doing this?
- What is the agreed process for updating it and issuing a new version?11. Who decides what goes in the Charter and what does not?
- Do both parties, Newlon and Residents, have to agreed to content and agree to add or remove things? What if they disagree? Who has the final say
- Additional Forums
Newlon has recently made us aware of two additional forums:
- TPAS
- Newlon Residents’ think tank
We’d not heard of either of these before – here’s what we’ve found out from Newlon:
TPAS
Tpas promotes, supports and champions tenant involvement and empowerment in social housing across England. It’s a unique organisation, in that it is a not-for-profit that has membership made up of both landlords and tenants. They are leading tenant engagement experts with a membership is made up of local tenants and landlord organisations, covering 3 million homes.
Newlon are a corporate member and, as a resident you can join for free because of this. They have various free events covering topics such as talk to the ombudsman, cladding discussions, EDI, scrutiny and good practice which are free to attend for residents.
Tpas has been a driving force behind raising the standard of tenant engagement for over 30 years.We want you to maximise all the benefits of your Tpas membership as a resident, via our corporate membership as your landlord.
Here’s the Tpas website https://www.tpas.org.uk/
We are invited to a webinar entitled ‘Getting the most out of your membership with Tpas’ on 20th October, 1.30pm-2.30pm. It’s FREE, via Zoom.
In the session Tpas staff will:
- Give a guided tour of your online membership account to familiarise you with all the benefits you can access.
- Help you learn about webinars and virtual events
- Support you to find out about their new Training programme
- Show you how to access our Networking groups
- Tell you about what Tpas have been up to
- Offer you the chance to ask any questions!
If you want to attend this session please let Emma Preston-Dunlop know (details below) or you can join Tpas as a resident for FREE as part of Newlon’s landlord membership and book events and training yourself. Details here. Newlon can make it easier for some people by doing the signing up for them and it helps them track attendance, too.
Newlon Residents’ think tank
Newlon has clarified that when tasked with setting up the Think Tank last year over 1500 residents of all tenures were approached, from all demographics specified under the Equalities Act by making a series of data sets – for example, all those who had requested a new fob in the last six months, all those who live on a tenth floor. All those who responded affirmatively were added to the Think Tank.
This was added to the pool of already actively involved residents – resident inspectors, the communications panel, residents’ forum, RAs and RGs etc.
From this Newlon has a database of actively involved residents, of all tenures. Some are more actively involved than others by their own choosing. The overarching Think Tank is, by its nature, light touch.
All involved residents are, by default, members of the Think Tank; ‘involved’ is simply an umbrella term for all involved residents.
If anyone would would like to be part of Newlon’s Think Tank they can email Emma.Preston-Dunlop@newlon.org.uk
- Defining residency/non-residency
UNANSWERED – We still don’t know when the cut-off date is to be deemed resident/non-resident. For example, if you were resident for the ballot, but have subsequently moved out, are you still classed as resident? Or is it going to be whether you are resident on the date of the planning application? The initial masterplan application, or the planning application relating to your block’s phase? We continue to push for an answer, Newlon has suggested that this may come in a couple of months.
- Parking after redevelopment
Bill Henderson said that ultimately parking will be decided by Islington through the planning process, but that Newlon want all residents that had parking before the redevelopment to keep their parking rights. This includes existing leaseholders who have current parking permits who buy into the new development.
- Considerate Construction?
Disruption from construction – Newlon states that any concerns must be raised through the planning process, and that Islington is pleased that Mt Anvil is the developer, since they are large, rely on their good reputation, and are keen to be considerate to residents and please the Council.
- Service Charges
About Service Charges – What do these cover? Monthly service charges only apply to your block and the communal areas associated with it. You do not pay for anything in other blocks, or anything on Old Barnsbury, or on other Newlon estates. We are clarifying with Newlon which areas would be considered communal (for example, a car parking or refuse collection area that may be used by more than one block).
Leaseholder Service Charges – Why do leaseholders pay higher service charges than tenants? Newlon states that this is the law. We think the discrepancy is because social tenants do not pay for insurance, management or repairs, but leaseholders do – but we want to double check this. NB – if you do equity transfer into the new development, shared equity leaseholders will pay full service charges.
UNANSWERED – We are all still paying service charges, but are cyclical decorating and necessary maintenance works/subsidence repairs, etc. on New Barnsbury going ahead according to the schedule they are supposed to? Or is Newlon going to withhold this, even for blocks that will still be standing in 5+ years?
- Section 20 notices
You can download the Newlon powerpoint presentation here.
Confusing letters – Why have 3 out of 5 of Newlon’s recent Section 20 notices been delivered to us, when they don’t apply to our blocks? Newlon’s person in charge of dealing with Section 20 notices, John Williams, replied to my email saying this:
“There are instances where the Section 20 consultation paperwork has gone out where my colleagues procuring the service, have told us the schemes for which the service should be notified. In some cases, we have been mis-informed, however, we have now put further checks in place before the Section 20 letters are issued to avoid any further distress to our residents.
“We do apologise for any confusion or stress this may have caused, and we hope to avoid such instances in future.”
Barnsbury Estate Leaseholders Group 