Showing posts with label social housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social housing. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 May 2023

The Green Party's Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter - applicable to Brent?

 We don't have council elections in Brent until 2025 but given the housing crisis and the debate over affordability I thought readers may be interested in Green Party policy on this issue which was publicised in the context of tomorro'w local elections eleswhere in the country.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

We need councillors and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy, where people need them. 

Today, speculators and developers are allowed to chase the biggest profits and ignore local needs. Too many villages and towns have seen large-scale developments take place without the community infrastructure expanded alongside, such as GP surgeries, bus services, cycling and walking networks and nurseries and schools.

What we need is local councils supported to build quality, affordable housing in the right places where people live and work, with the right supporting infrastructure and local facilities.

Our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will simultaneously protect valuable green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing.

We’ve seen how Green councillors have made a difference in Mid Suffolk, where developers are now expected to provide EV points, not connect to the gas grid and provide heat pumps as standard.

The villages of Suffolk and Norfolk are facing the same problems as much of the rest of the country - developers being allowed to build houses local people often can’t afford and failing to ensure local services like buses and GP surgeries get the investment they need.

Developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment and this has got to stop.”

Co-leader Carla Denyer, who is a serving councillor and Parliamentary candidate in Bristol, said:

Up and down the country, people are experiencing the same problems as people here in Stowmarket - homes that are unaffordable to buy, unaffordable to rent and unaffordable to heat. There is a generation of people who are trapped in the private rental market by spiralling rents that bear no relationship to incomes.

To address this, in the short term, we would introduce an immediate rent freeze and eviction ban to prevent people being made homeless in the middle of this cost of living crisis, as the Scottish Greens have already done as part of the Scottish Government. 

In the longer term, we would give councils the power to bring in rent controls in areas where the housing market is overheated. We would also place much stricter controls on the type of new homes bein

Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. That is why our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities.

The Greens’ Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would:

  • End the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard

  • Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use

  • Transform the planning system to:

    • Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction

    • Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates

    • Protect valuable green space for communities

    • Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services

  • Transform building regulations to ensure: 

    • all new private and public sector housing meets Passivhaus or equivalent standards

    • house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes.

  • Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life

  • Introduce rent controls 

  • End no-fault evictions

Thursday 23 March 2023

£1.32m boost for energy efficiency measures in 127 units of Brent's social housing

127 units of Brent Councils' most energy inefficient social housing stock are to benefit from a £1.32m grant from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for energy efficiency improvements. Bent Council say that the  project will help equip Brent to achieve its goal in reducing CO2 emissions from social housing and improve tenants’ comfort and wellbeing

The works will be managed by Brent’s long-term delivery partner, Wates, with project oversight from the Brent Major Works team.

Saturday 10 September 2022

Newland Court residents call on Kilburn Times to cover their concerns over Brent's infill proposals

 

Newland Court

 

The residents of Newland Court and Grendon Gardens have written to the editor of the Brent and Kilburn Times asking him report on their concerns over Brent Council's infill proposals:


Dear André Langlois,

 

I am sure you are aware of Brent Council's 'infill' programme to build as many properties as possible in existing estates within Brent at any cost, even the mental health and wellbeing of all the residents that these 'infill' proposals will affect. I would like to invite you or one of your newspapers' representatives to come to our estate and see for yourself why building 7 new townhouses at Newland Court just doesn't make sense on so many grounds including the fact that Brent Council are prepared to ignore their own Brent Council's Planning Guidance and go ahead with this proposal. This proposal also affects residents of Grendon Gardens whose gardens back onto the proposed site and whose trees will all either be damaged or destroyed and are all sited in a conservation area of Barnhill. 

 

We are all aware that there is a housing shortage especially for 3-4 bedroom family homes and that some families wait an average of 15 years. After all, I was one of them but this housing shortage has been a problem for over 40 years and Brent have been aware of this and have done nothing.  Suddenly because of pressure from the government to build new social homes and the fact that they may lose a certain amount of funding if they don't by a given date, they have decided to build in almost all their existing estates at any cost. Why??? because they have sold all or most of their plots of land to private developers to build unaffordable homes that are either bought or rented by foreign investors. You only have to see what has happened around Wembley Stadium as one example. 

 

Brent council moved their headquarters to the Civic Centre (at a cost of about £100 million but rumoured to be a lot more) from the former Brent Town Hall on Forty Avenue and sold the land which is now a private French School. That land could have been used to create 100's  of council homes. There are numerous little plots of open spaced land scattered across Brent that could be used for homes. There are lots of derelict homes that Brent could gain purchasing orders for and of course the former Unisys building on the corner of Harrow Road and the North Circular that has stood empty for 25 years in wasted legal disputes. Below is a link to Wembley Matters with a letter I wrote to Councillor Promise Knight and a few other Labour Councillors including MP Barry Gardiner regarding this issue.

 

So I hope you can write an article in your newspaper highlighting our issues and concerns regarding this matter.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Marc Etukudo

On behalf of residents of Newland Court and Grendon Gardens. 

 

 

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2022/07/newland-court-residents-objection-to.html

 

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2022/08/newland-court-residents-put-question-to.html

 

Wednesday 17 August 2022

Planning Committee dumps Brent Poverty Commission recommendations on social rent and leave disabled residents of Rokesby Place in the lurch

 

The recommendation accepted by Brent Cabinet in September 2020

The Planning Committee tonight failed to challenge the change of tenure from Social Rent to London Affordable Rent in the Rokesby Place planning application and the conditions tonight. 

I suspect that this may mean that London Affordable Rent (LAR) is becoming the default position on Brent's new council housing. As Alan Lunt did before, in another application, the planning officer presenting the report minimised the difference claiming that LAR was genuinely affordable. She first said that she hadn't got the numbers but LAR was 'very, very similar' to social rent. She was given time to get the figures and stated  that the difference was that LAR was 8% higher than social rent but did not mention that unlike social housing services, LAR services are not capped.  No councillor asked her to explain why the change had been made.  

Making light of an 8% plus increase on the original rent, particularly during a cost of living crisis on accommodation for large families, is not acceptable.

It seems that  Labour members of planning committee can see things that are wrong, ask a question, but then withdraw even when the answer provided is obviously inadequate.

They challenge but don't pursue all under the  emolliative chairing of Cllr Kelcher.

Similarly vague answers from Maddox, Brent Council's agents, were accepted and this included a claim that argued there was no requirement to take into account the disability adjustments needed for existing disabled residents as a result of the development, as well as the dismissing of LAR even though(not mentioned by councillors) their report stated that the development was for social rent. 

This followed a heart-felt presentation by a Rokesby Place resident on the impact of the changes on access of the proposed layout changes on access for those using a wheelchair. It was left to Conservative councillor Michael Maurice )Ken ton  ward)  to oppose the application on grounds of lack of disabled parking as well as parking for visiting carers and medical staff,  reduction of  amenity space for existing residents and an increase in density on a very small site. Cllr Rajan Seelan (Labour - Wembley Central) also voted against on vehicle access grounds but the application was passed 6-2.

In her presentation resident Shahida Khan had said that the present car park that will be removed was the only place for a disabled person to get out of a car safely.  There was no evidence of an equality impact assessment for disabled people and she suggested that councillors get in a wheelchair themselves and tried to get in and out of a car. The process has not been fair and the disabled had not been considered. She wanted the application deferred for further consultation.

Residents voiced oncerns about the difficulty of access for fire tenders but officers argued that the new houses would be fitted with sprinklers so that rather than the requirement for a 45 metre hose distance from appliance to the house that a 70 metre distance would apply.

Cllr Ketan Sheth (Labour - Wembley Central) a former chair of planning committee, gave a 5 minute presentation opposing the application and supporting the residents' views. 

He said that while private amenity space and a shared amenity space had been provided for residents of the new houses, the plans took away well-used existing amenity space for current residents. What was now proposed was a scant replacement for what they would lose.

Residents' everyday experience of parking on the estate meant that they rejected the officers' assessment of parking needs. The suggestion that they park on nearby streets would put them in competition with existing use by staff from the post office sorting office, fire station,  police station and a nursing home.

He challenged the officers' view that it was unlikely that hedgehogs were present in the current green space by saying as well as residents' sighting, he had seen them for himself. The loss of mature trees was disappointing and would discourage wildlife.

Cllr Sheth was also concerned about the new development's impact on the privacy of residents. The new car park would mean that at night headlights would shine straight into bedrooms and the proximity of the amenity meant noise would disturb residents.

He drew attention to the discrepancy in the documents that referred to social rent  in the applciation and London Affordable Rent in Condition 3.  The Council's own Poverty Commssion had identified that LAR was not affordable to most Brent residents. He suggested that Condition 3 be changed back to social rent.

That was not to be.

BACKGROUND: Wembley Matters has raised some questions about the make up of the Planning Committee and its inter-relationships in a previous article Planning and Probity.


Monday 8 November 2021

Brent Council to purchase leasehold on 155 units in Alperton Bus Garage development at average of £280k per home

 

The Brent Cabinet this morning is set to approve purchase of a 50 year lease on 155 out of the 461 units in the  Telford Homes Alperton Bus Garage development on the corner of Ealing Road and Bridgewater Road:

To finance the purchase of this block, the Council will take a lease of 50 years from the  Asset Special Putchase Vehicle (ASPV), with rents set a current day social rents and indexed at CPI plus 1%. Upon completion of the 50-year lease, a reversionary 949-year lease will be granted a nil rent or peppercorn. 
 
 
The developer will grant the Council a 50-year lease with a 949 reversion at a peppercorn rent on completion of the contract for the 155 affordable homes. The developer will continue to insure the premises during the construction and until completion of the contract. 
 
 
Officers have been in discussion with the ASPV regarding the possibility of purchasing these homes. An offer has been on a purchase price of circa £48M via private treaty on a 50 year leasing arrangement, which means an average of £280K for each home (including a GLA grant).

The Cabinet Meeting can be watched on-line at 10am this morning HERE

Sunday 24 January 2021

Questions are asked as Brent's key worker housing in Wembley Park opens for applications


 Still from Virtual Tour (see links below)

I've long been an advocate of key worker housing provision in the borough having seen young teachers forced to move out of Brent as soon as they start a family because they can't afford high local rents. I am sure the same applies to health workers police etc and the result is a loss of valuable staff and recruitment problems.

Developments in the borough did not include key worker housing and in the infamous Willesden Green Library case were marketed by agents (in Singapore!) with the selling point that buyers  DID NOT have to share with affordable or key worker tenants. LINK

I welcomed the news that Brent Council had purchased a block in the Wembley Park development from  Quintain for key worker housing despite a deal in which details were not readily available.  That housing is now open to applications.

However doubts have been expressed in emails to Wembley Matters about the affordability of the units to key workers as well as questions over inclusions and exclusions in the list of eligible workers. Why for example are some of the workers now seen as key in the face of the pandemic not included - refuse workers, delivery workers and those working in essential retail?

One correspondent pointed out a current Brent advertisement for Home Care Assistants well outside the income level needed. LINK

In order to assess the offer here are two tables for background:

Weekly council house rents under the current HRA budget proposals in consultation


 

London Mayor's definitions of affordable housing

The monthly rent for one bedroomed keyworker housing is £992 (including service charge) and the equivalent average council rent is £450. For two bedroomed keyworker housing the comparison is £1,122 and £519.30.

The London Housing Allowance (To calculate Housing benefit and the gap between that and local rents can be accessed here - just type in you post code) LINK

The Key Worker offer from Brent Council website LINK

 

Brent Council’s wholly owned housing company, i4B, has negotiated the purchase of a brand new apartment block in Wembley Park which will provide much-needed affordable accommodation for key workers across the borough and beyond. 

 

The building is due to open in January, and applications are now open for our 1- and 2-bed apartments for those that are eligible. 

 

Virtual tours

Please see the links below to go on a virtual tour of the apartments. These are best opened in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Please note that not all apartments are the same layout or size.

 

Rent levels 

Monthly rent levels will be £992 for a 1-bed apartment and £1,122 for a 2-bed apartment. This includes service charge, but does not include bills such as electricity, broadband or water usage.

 

Eligibility criteria 

 

As part of the process, supporting information will need to be submitted to confirm the eligibly of tenants on the below areas. We will be carrying out independent verification and referencing checks to confirm the information provided. 

 

Key Worker Status 

 

At least one member of a household must be in a key worker post, and at least one eligible key worker must remain on the tenancy at all times.

 

The nomination policy, agreed by the Council and the i4B board, identifies two tiers of key worker roles. Tier 1 roles are the key worker roles that are most in demand for recruitment and retention. Tier two roles are key worker roles that are still in demand, but not to the same degree as tier one roles.

 

Applications from people in Tier 1 roles will be prioritised. However, if you are in a Tier 2 role you should still apply. 

 

Details of eligible key worker roles are below, the roles are listed in no particular order. 

 

 Tier 1

  • Qualified Social Worker (excluding ASYE)
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Educational Psychologist
  • Planner
  • Commissioning Employee (Adult Social Care)
  • Surveyor
  • IT Architect
  • Public Health Specialist
  • Specialist IT Engineer
  • Health Visitor
  • Nurses – Bands 5 and 6
  • Midwives at Band 6
  • Physiotherapist
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Speech and Language Therapist
  • Doctors in the following specialties:
    • Acute Medicine
    • Haematology
    • Pathology
    • Anaesthetics / Critical Care
    • Dermatology
    • Cardiology
    • Care of Elderly
    • Respiratory
    • Medicine

Tier 2

  • Armed Forces
  • Council/Government Staff
  • Fire Officers and Retained Fire Fighters
  • NHS Staff
  • Police Officers
  • Prison Service and Probation Service Staff
  • Social Worker
  • Teachers in schools, further education or sixth form colleges
  • Any other worker agreed in writing by the Council (this will be reviewed yearly to reflect the needs of the Council and the list will be published online) 

 

Contract Status

The key worker in the household must be employed on a permanent contract or be employed on a fixed term contract where:

  • They are due to remain in employment for a further 6 months from the date the tenancy is due to commence and;
  • The initial term of their contract was at least 12 months. 

 

Household Income 

 

The Key Worker Housing scheme is designed to provide accommodation to households who may otherwise have difficulties affording to rent in London. Therefore, household income limits have been set. Please note that this is based on household income i.e. the total annual income of all household members over 18, not the key workers annual income. 

  • To be eligible for a one bedroom property household income must not exceed £65k a year.
  • To be eligible for a two bedroom property household income must not exceed £90k a year.
  • Household income must also be a minimum of £31k. 

 

Citizenship 

 

All household members must be either a British or EU/EEA citizen with a Settled Status by December 2020 or have indefinite leave to remain in the UK. 

 

Property Ownership

 

No household member can own or part own a property.

One eligible key worker must remain on the tenancy at all times

 

Before applying 

 

Make sure you have the below documents to hand as you will not be able to complete an application without them. 

 

You will also need to collect all of the below information for any household members who are over the age of 18:

  • Passport or documents proving an indefinite right to remain in the UK
  • You last 3 months payslip
  • Contract of Employment
  • Contact details for current landlord (if applicable)
  • Birth certificates for children under 18 

 

Please read the above information carefully on the eligibility criteria for the scheme and have the supporting documentation ready before starting your application.  

 

 

Tuesday 19 January 2021

Greens reveal loss of 13,500 social and council homes, in London boroughs, including Brent, since 2003

In a report relevant to this afternoon's Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committe  a new report by Sian Berry, Green Party Assembly Member and Mayoral candidate  reveals London is set to have lost more than 13,500 social and council homes in estate redevelopment schemes since 2003 if currently approved projects are completed.

 

The report, Estate redevelopment in London, reveals that completed demolition schemes on sites with existing social housing have led to the net loss of 6,748 social and council homes since 2003. It also shows that a further 6,791 will be lost if currently approved schemes go ahead.

 

Estate redevelopment schemes funded by the Mayor now cannot involve demolition without residents approving schemes via a ballot. This is part of a new policy finally introduced by the Mayor in July 2018, after a long campaign from estate residents and Sian Berry.

Today’s report reveals that this policy has yet to take full effect. It also describes how the losses have been worsened by the Mayor quietly agreeing to fund dozens of schemes in the months ahead of the new ballot policy coming into force. This allowed many thousands of potential home demolitions to slip under the wire of new rules.

 

The new research found that 1,430 social rented homes will be demolished and not replaced in schemes given planning permission since April 2018 alone.

 

Sian Berry AM said:

 

London simply cannot afford to lose 13,539 council and housing association homes through demolition. Waiting lists of Londoners in urgent need of housing continue to grow and people are more squeezed than ever by the housing crisis.

 

My research today shows we have already lost thousands of social housing homes, and that thousands more are under imminent threat. Demolishing estates in this way not only reduces the amount of housing for families in need, it also breaks up communities at the heart of life in the city.

 

The Mayor’s decision to sign off on dozens of redevelopment schemes in 2018, allowing them to dodge incoming rules for resident ballots, has prolonged the damage to our city. I have found that the new ballot policy is not yet making a significant impact on schemes that have reached the planning stage as a result.

 

And now estates are under even more threat from the Government’s proposed new national planning rules. These would force councils to define whole areas for rapid or automatic planning approval and do not give a single mention to the rights of people already living in these areas to have a say.

 

Key findings from the report 'Estate Redevelopment in London: Have things improved under the current Mayor?, are shown in the tables below.

 

Total impact of London estate redevelopment schemes: -13,539.
A map showing boroughs' net loss of social housing in estate redevelopment schemes (all schemes on sites with existing social housing) granted planning permission since 2003, overall.

 

Social Housing net loss/gain, completed schemes in London 2003 - July 2020

Total impact of completed schemes: -6,748.
A map showing boroughs' net loss of social rented housing in estate redevelopment schemes granted planning permission since 2003, where construction has been completed.

Map showing the total impact of completed schemes granted planning permission since 2003, where construction has been completed

Total impact of schemes in the pipeline: -6,791.
A map of boroughs set to lose social rented homes in estate redevelopment schemes granted planning permission since 2003, for which construction has not started, or has begun and not yet been completed:

Map showing boroughs set to lose social rented homes in estate redevelopment schemes granted planning permission since 2003 where construction has not begun or is not complete 
 

Monday 17 August 2020

Brent Poverty Commission calls for increased investment in social housing & in-depth review of private rented sector




Brent Council Press Release


Today (Monday 17 August), Brent’s Poverty Commission delivered its findings, following a six-month review into poverty in the London borough. It points out 1 in 6 households (17%) live below the poverty line, doubling (to 33%) after housing costs are taken into account. More than 1 in 5 (22%) of children live in poverty, doubling to a startling 43% after housing costs.

The report draws on evidence from residents, politicians and expert local and national organisations and presents powerful first-hand experiences, bringing home what it means to live in poverty in Brent.

Closing the housing gap

The Commission found that the borough’s proximity to wealth and the skilled employment offered by central London has driven housing costs up without raising pay locally, creating an affordability gap which pushes people into poverty and is a key cause of homelessness. It points to an acute shortage of social housing which has forced people into the private rented sector where rents are two or even three times higher.

To address this, the Commission recommends Brent Council builds on its ambitious plans to generate more affordable homes, using its borrowing powers to build, working with housing associations and taking advantage of post-COVID opportunities to buy from developers and landlords who are exiting the market. It also urges the council to launch an in-depth review into the private rented sector, and enforce decent standards, not least to reduce fuel poverty and health problems caused by poor conditions.

Keeping the sharks at bay

With the second highest number of furloughed workers in London and high rates of in-work poverty due to low pay, the Commission highlights the importance of active labour market policies in the wake of COVID-19 to support job creation and improve local earnings.
Recommendations include using the council’s local influence and procurement powers to secure more quality apprenticeships and specialist skills training, as well as to encourage more small and medium-sized employers to pay the London Living Wage. In particular, prioritising activities to raise the aspirations of young people in the borough.

To break cycles of debt that COVID-19 is likely to exacerbate, the Commission encourages the council to take forward work recently started with credit unions to provide low-cost loans to cut down dependence on unscrupulous lenders.

Lord Richard Best, an independent crossbench peer and social housing champion, who chairs the Affordable Housing Commission, said:
Our report makes recommendations to ease poverty in Brent by raising incomes. It also shows that poverty is driven by high costs, specifically of private sector housing rents, that lead to more than 2 out of 5 children living in poverty. We call for urgent action to generate the social housing that can address this problem.
Cllr Eleanor Southwood, Cabinet Member for Housing & Welfare Reform at Brent Council, who commissioned the work said:
Because the causes of poverty are so complex, too often policy makers reach for sticking plasters. We wanted to understand how this web of problems, from wages to housing, debt and opportunity, come together to harm people’s quality of life in Brent.
I am extremely grateful to Lord Best for leading this Commission. We will offer a full response in the coming weeks, but I’m optimistic that this marks a new chapter in how we address poverty in Brent.



Friday 28 February 2020

St Raphael's Estate: a recent meeting and upcoming exhibition

I wrote recently about the competition between two groups to win the hearts and minds of people on the St Raphael's Estate where residents are faced with choosing between refurbishment and in-filling on the estate or complete demolition and rebuild financed by the development of private housing on the estate.

St Raphael's Estate Community organised a public meeting attend by more than 60 residents on February 25th which was attended by ASH (Architects for Social Housing) as well as by some leading members of St Raphael's Voice.  St Raphael's Voice claim on Twitter to be the represenative voice:
St Raphaels Voice - The Representative Residents/Tenants/Stakeholders Board for St Raphaels Estate are officially on Twitter - Please ignore all other fake accounts
Further details on the Brent Council website HERE 

St Raphael's Estate Community also on Twitter state:
Ordinary Peoples Rights THE RESIDENCE OF ST RAPHAELS WANT TO KEEP THEIR HOMES, NO TO REDEVELOPMENT/REGENERATION. YES TO REFURBISHMENT With Infills
 Their website is HERE

Inevitably I understand there was some disagreement between the two groups at the meeting.

ASH have published a full account of the meeting with slides from their presentation on their website HERE along with the two videos below. The first is the main presentation and the second an account by Pete Firmin on the experience of residents on the South Kilburn Estate of 15 years of redevelopment/regeneration with another 15 to go.





St Raphael's Voice are advertising two public exhibitions of design alternatives for the estate:


Today Brent Council issued this press release about the exhibition:

The St Raphael’s community will get their first glimpse of what their future estate could look like at two public exhibitions in early March.

The exhibitions, taking place on Saturday 7 March between 12-4pm at St Patrick’s Church, and Tuesday 10 March between 5-8pm at Henderson House, will be a chance for residents to have a first look at the initial designs for infill development and redevelopment – the two approaches being considered to improve St Raphael’s for existing residents while providing much needed new affordable housing.

Earlier this winter, residents attended 11 co-design workshops that saw them explore how each approach could best benefit the existing community. Karakusevic Carson Architects, who residents appointed as their chosen architect in July 2019, then used the community’s ideas to create the initial designs.

Councillor Eleanor Southwood, Brent’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Welfare Reform, said: “For the last year we’ve been working closely with residents and community groups as they have created plans for how their estate could look and feel in the future. It’s vitally important that the community continues to lead the design process, so I encourage everyone living locally to tell us what they think and their preferred design option.”

Chair of the estate’s resident board St Raphael’s Voice, Asif Zamir, said: “The public exhibition is a significant milestone for all residents; I’m excited to see the community turn out and to have some thought provoking conversations on the possibilities, and their aspirations, for the future of our estate. We will continue to empower residents to lead the way forward together, so that we can get the best outcome for everyone whichever option is preferred.”

Following the exhibitions, the community’s preferred initial designs will be tested to ensure they meet planning guidelines and are affordable. Later this year eligible residents will choose their preferred vision for the future of St Raphael’s.