Hyde Housing: Bellevue Mansions ITRA

Wednesday 8th of May 2024

Hello and welcome to The Tpas ITRA website for Bellevue Mansions

We are glad you stopped by and hope you find the information on this page useful.

Our aim is to provide independent advice about the proposals for this to all affected residents.  We recognise this may be a stressful time for people and we are here to help.

Want to know more? ……. Read on

So what is an ITRA? What does it do and why do we have one for Bellevue mansions residents?

ITRA stands for Independent Tenants and Resident Advisor

An ITRA is an independent organisation that provides independent advice to tenants and residents who are being affected by significant housing proposals they may be affected by.

In the case of Bellevue Mansions our involvement is in relation to the proposals for redevelopment of the estate involving the proposed demolition of Bellevue mansions. We understand that all affected residents have been informed about these proposals and that they will be consulted on them by Hyde.

Under the Major of London’s guidelines for these kind of proposals an ITRA has to be appointed by the landlord to provide residents with independent advice on how the proposals could affect them, their rights and how consultation will be conducted.

Tpas has over 30 years of providing advice to residents and all our staff are experienced housing professionals. 

So what will TPAS as your ITRA do?

The Major of London’s Guidelines also say that any proposals which involve redevelopment and demolition have to have the approval of the majority of affected residents in a ballot. This is the case for Bellevue Mansions.

So Hyde have to draw up a detailed proposal for residents to vote on in a yes or no ballot.

This will detail what’s proposed and how it will affect all residents in terms of their homes, rehousing, compensation and what the estate redesign will look like and involve.

Hyde will be consulting with residents on the proposals in the next few months on what they propose and aim to have a ballot in December 2024. Please note this date is only a provisional one but we don’t think it will be any earlier than this,

Our job will be to:

• Give advice to all affected residents on what the proposals could mean for them, what their rights are, what compensation they can expect and how the consultation process will work as well as answer any questions they may have.  We won’t advise you how to vote but we do aim to make sure you are well informed when you do.
• Make sure that all information by given to residents by Hyde or other stakeholders is accurate, easy to understand and comprehensive and that Hydes consultation process includes everyone.
• Advise and support your resident representatives when they discuss the redevelopment proposals that residents will vote upon with Hyde.
• Liaise with Hyde on any issue that residents raise with us or that independently we think need to be considered. (Please note that feedback on all issues raised with us will be given anonymously to Hyde unless we have the resident’s permission to share their name or address.)

So, what does this mean in practice?

You will probably see us out and about on the estate knocking on doors to get people’s views or visiting people in their homes to give them advice.

A lot of our work will be responding to people on the telephone, via zoom or via email so this won’t be as visible.

You may see us at any consultation events on the estate and we might also do our own meetings or drop-in sessions.

If you decide to get involved with more in depth consultation with Hyde, via the residents steering group or other similar things, you will see us at those meetings and doing other support work with resident representatives.

You will also see occasional updates from us posted through your door as well as on other social media that normally gives information to you.

We will also be putting regular information and briefings on this website as well.

So hopefully this at least gives you an idea of the kind of things we will be doing.

Its worth stressing that our role as the ITRA is to ensure that people have access to the right kind of independent information and advice to help them make an informed decision on the proposals

So how can you get in touch with us?

Getting in touch with your ITRA

You can get in touch with us in the following ways:

Freephone: 0800 731 1619 

Email: bellevueresidentadvisor@tpas.org.uk

We will then contact to arrange to speak to you either on the phone or in person or however you prefer.

As well as getting in contact you can tell a member of the Hyde team that you would like to speak to us and we will be in touch or if you see us out and about on the estate or at an event just say hello and we will be happy to talk to you. 

We will also have this website that you can go to where we will be posting regular information about the project, answers to questions we are frequently asked by residents and useful information we think people may wish to know, in terms of their rights and options. It will also have information about how you can get involved in consultation activities. 

We have put the link for the website below just so you can copy it if you want to

https://www.tpas.org.uk/our-projects/hyde-housing-belle-vue-mansions-ita

We will be regularly updating our website so we would advise visiting it regularly to see what is new.

In any event if you have any questions, concerns, would like advice or just a chat just get in contact with us and we will be in touch, usually within 24 hours

We are just getting started!

Having been appointed In May 2024 we are now busy gathering all the information we can.

Our first priority is to speak to as many residents we can in Bellevue Mansions to find out what they are thinking and feeling about the project and get an idea of the questions, concerns and the issues that are important to them.  We want to do this as soon as we can and to get to know the residents who are affected.

So, we are proposing to do some door knocking in the last 2 weeks in May and early June to try to speak to as many people as we can. So please listen out for us door knocking! We will have Tpas photo ID so you know its us.

However, if a particular time or date is better for you or you would just like to speak to somebody by phone or Zoom, Skype etc just ring our freephone number to tell us (0800 731 1619)

In the weeks to come we will try to post more information we think may be helpful about the project itself and our responses to the questions people are putting to us.

A bit about Tpas

We are an independent Housing Organization that is dedicated to ensuring that the voice of resident is heard and acted upon and have been active in this field for over 30 years.

As well as lobbying for this, we have many resident and landlord members across the country who we work with to help improve resident engement across the sector. This involves policy and practice briefings, news updates, good practice papers and training.

As part of these activities, we provide independent advice services across the country. Over the years we have worked with the sector on developing good practice in this area and have our own independent advisors code. Below you can find a link to our Independent Advisor good practice guide, and you can find more information about what we do on our website.

You can find out what to expect from us at your Independent Tenant and Leaseholder Advisor by reading our Good Guide to ITA.

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(A) Estate door knock: Did you see us on the estate?

In late May as promised we did an initial door knock on the estate to introduce ourselves to residents, get to know people a little and understand what they think about Hyde’s proposals.

It was nice to meet people at Bellevue Mansions and we’d like to thank everybody who spoke to us.

We found that:

• People did not have much confidence in Hyde as they were not happy with the service they had been receiving
• People did not really seem clear on what was being proposed and why
• There was a mixed response from residents on the condition of their homes and many were not sure about alternative proposals
• People were not sure about the role of Tpas and our relationship to Hyde

We understand that the prospect of the regeneration is unsettling, and that people have enough going on in their lives without having something else to think about.

But our main aim is to help the residents understand what’s going on, make sure their interests are being considered properly and that we help people to be able to vote on the proposals with confidence.

So we hope with time we can get to know everyone in Bellevue Mansions and people can see we are independent and trustworthy.

(B)Why should you trust Tpas? Our role explained 

In London. any proposal to demolish social homes like yours requires a ballot of residents before going ahead.

The same regulations say that an independent resident advisor must be appointed to advise residents on how the proposals could affect them, on any negotiations with the landlords for proposals they put forward and also on the ballot process. We are also there to check that any information that is sent to residents is accurate, comprehensive and not misleading.

The landlord is required to cover the cost of our services, but we act independently, and the landlord does not tell us what to say. Our messages and communications are our own.

To be clear we have no view on. or preference for, which way residents vote on the proposals. Our only concern is that everyone is clear on what the proposals mean for them so they can make an informed decision on how they vote.

(C) Why is getting advice from Tpas important?

As a Bellevue Mansions resident, the regeneration proposals have the potential to significantly affect you

At its most basic:

• If Hyde go ahead with the regeneration proposal, your home will be demolished which will mean that you will have to move home
• If Hyde don’t go ahead with their regeneration proposals you will remain in your home and there will be significant refurbishments done to Bellevue Mansions which will affect you to a greater or lesser extent.

So the important issues for any resident about the redevelopment proposals are;

• What do they mean for me?
• What will be the effect of the proposals?
• What is the proposed timescale?
• What is the reason for the proposals? What has prompted them?
• How will whether the proposals go ahead be decided?
• What are the timescales for the process and how long would any redevelopment take?

Important issues If demolition goes ahead are

• What are my rights?
• Where will I be moved to?
• When would I have to move?
• What choice will I have on where I live?
• Will I be able to move back to the estate?
• Will my personal, family and employment needs be considered?
• Will I receive any compensation?
• How long will this all take?
• What’s the process?
• Will my housing and quality of life be better or worse after this takes place?

Important issues to consider if the regeneration and demolition does not go ahead:

• What will happen to the regeneration proposals? Is that the end of redevelopment for Bellevue Mansions?
• What refurbishment works will be done to the Bellevue Mansions building as a whole and to my home?

This is not meant to be a complete list but hopefully does give an indication of the kind of issues that are important for residents and the kind of questions that they may have. Also, the answers to some of the questions may be different depending on if you are;

• A Hyde tenant,
• A Leaseholder
• A Tenant of a private landlord

(Please see our next section called ‘So What Do I Need To Know’ for more information about how things may differ depending on your tenure.

As we understand it, Hyde have given you answers to some of these questions already in communications and meetings and their will be a proposal document from them which will also talk about these issues prior to residents voting on the proposals.

Our role at Tpas is to be an independent body you can trust to answer any questions you have  

 

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