Plans for almost 15,000 new homes across Newham have emerged in recent months, but in a borough where many feel neglected by gentrification new developments pose a big challenge.
Home of the 2012 London Olympics and 2017 World Athletics Championships, the borough has gone through a housing transformation in recent years.
Faced with an overheating property market, shrinking housing supply and years of under-funding, this has not come without its difficulties.
In May, Crown Estates and Lendlease announced plans to build 6,300 homes at Silvertown, and develop a further three land plots in Stratford Cross, with the potential to deliver more than 1.6 million square feet of commercial space.
Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz said: "These two sites are pivotal in our vision for the wider revival of the Royal Docks and surrounding areas, including parts of the borough long left behind.”
A month later, Transport for London (TfL) and Ballymore announced a joint venture to develop Limmo Peninsula, near Canning Town with an estimated 1,400 homes built - 40 per cent of these set to be affordable.
July saw the first phase of the major TwelveTrees Park regeneration project in West Ham completed, with the initial 110 affordable homes of a 4,700-home target delivered.
The flurry of activity comes as the council launches an ambitious growth plan to build up to 8,000 new homes on council-owned land by 2030, with 1,500 council homes expected to be delivered in the next year.
Launching the plan, Mayor Fiaz said: “Newham has all the components to deliver the inclusive growth that London and the UK need. But our priority is ensuring growth happens with our residents, not to them. That means tackling inequalities, building community resilience to the climate emergency, and making sure prosperity benefits every household.”
'We had a lovely three-bed flat and a wonderful community'
A key component of this plan relies on the £1.4bn regeneration of the Carpenters Estate in Stratford - with phase one having started on site on
1 September.
A symbol of both the good and bad of major regeneration, Carpenters Road cleaves a path through the middle of the vast Olympic development, one of the most intensively redeveloped corners of the capital.
London’s Olympic legacy has left a sour taste in the mouth of some residents living on the other side of the railway bridge, who spoke of feeling “left out”.
One man, who had grown up visiting friends on the Carpenters Estate, told the Citizen: “The Olympics brought all this money in and people with money moved to the area. But families who had been here for generations were
left behind.
“Regeneration isn’t always bad, it could make things better here but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Plans for the Carpenters Estate will see Newham Council’s wholly-owned housing company, Populo Living, deliver more than 2,300 new and refurbished homes - half at social rent - alongside a new school, parks, commercial space, sports and community facilities over the next 12 years. The start of phase one is a major milestone for the ambitious project which has hung in the balance for more than two decades, subject to multiple plans and protests.
The estate has 710 homes in total, from the low-rise terraces to the three tower blocks of Lund Point, Dennison Point and James Riley Point, but in 2025 less than half of those are occupied.
Plans to regenerate the estate first began in 2003, after residents complained to the council about poor building maintenance, asbestos and rodent infestations.
The 23-storey James Riley Point was to be demolished and the very first residents were decanted from their homes in 2004.
The other two tower blocks were set to be refurbished but this was deemed too expensive for the Labour-run council, and residents were eventually moved out of their homes and the low-rise properties on Doran Walk in 2009.
Nicola Hodgson, one of the first to be moved out of James Riley Point, told the Citizen: “I had lived there my whole life. We had a lovely three-bed flat and a wonderful community. Every Christmas we’d get together at the social club. But then the plans were announced and I was moved out. The community was ripped apart.”
'It's become a ghost town'
Ms Hodgson, a council tenant, now lives in a one-bed flat with her husband
and daughter.
She said: “I have the option to move back in once it’s done. But I've been waiting 20 years and my flat is still empty. It’s become a ghost town.”
For Ms Hodgson, the Carpenters Estate regeneration holds the same unfulfilled promises and ominous signs of coming gentrification as
the Olympics.
But Populo has branded their model of development as a regeneration scheme that will be different from the gentrifying projects that have been criticised elsewhere in London.
Nick Clough, Carpenters project director at Populo Living, said: “The plans for James Riley Point are a reflection of Newham’s attitude towards ‘better’ regeneration, that delivers for existing communities while providing additional homes in Newham.”
In 2021, 73 per cent of residents and those with a right to return voted in favour of Populo’s proposal to deliver thousands of new homes, with half at social rent.
Phase one, now underway, will see James Riley Point upgraded. The 1960s tower will receive a sustainable retrofit to the Passivhaus EnerPHit standard, making it the largest certified EnerPHit in London.
The EnerPHit standard provides requirements for retrofit projects designed to maximise thermal efficiency and drastically reduce energy consumption and heating requirements, cutting bills for residents.
The refreshed tower will be entirely affordable, a key target for a borough with London’s largest housing waiting list for social housing.
Mayor Fiaz, who is also the portfolio lead for inclusive economy, strategic housing delivery, and culture, said: “We know the regeneration of the Carpenters Estate has been a long time coming. That’s why I was determined to see progress on my watch.
“This inclusive form of regeneration is about creating a future-proofed neighbourhood at the heart of Stratford.
“It shows how Newham is growing in a way that is fairer and how it's delivering security, comfort and opportunity for current residents and future generations alike.”
