Anyone travelling east along the Thames from central London will notice the hard edge of Docklands giving way to the natural riverbank.
Here lies Barking Riverside, 2km of soft Thames frontage, and now the largest housing development in the UK at the heart of Thames Gateway.
The key elements of the development are 10,800 homes, up to 66,000sqm of retail, business and community facilities, plus up to four primary schools and a new secondary extended school.
Densities will range from 40 to 240 dwellings per hectare in locations with high levels of public transport accessibility. Through the Section 106 process, strategies will be agreed covering transport, employment, waste, green space, affordable housing, energy and sustainability, play, sport and recreation, education facilities and management of the area through a community development trust.
We are determined to create a mixed community through the size and types of property. The indicative mix is – 11% one-bedroom; 47% two-bedroom; 30% three-bedroom; and 12% four plus-bedroom homes.
In terms of tenure split, 41% across the whole development will be affordable, with at least 50% of these being socially rented. Intermediate ownership properties will need to be accessible to households with incomes no greater than £22,000 a year – the current borough average. The developer – Bellway homes and English Partnerships, the council, and an alliance of RSLs, will establish a local housing company to own and manage these properties and re-direct surpluses towards new social housing in future.
The community development trust will develop a sense of community and assist with management of the area. Income will come from an estate charge on each household, plus income from rents on commercial properties, providing facilities and benefits for the whole borough.
We will ensure that social infrastructure – schools, health centres, community spaces, and retail – are provided at an early stage.
Four neighbourhood centres will incorporate a range of facilities, and the first centre will be under construction prior to completion of the 500th dwelling.
These facilities will not only support the new community but also provide local employment opportunities. In addition, the site is located close to two large strategic employment areas.
However, at present, residents do have the right skills to access these jobs, and the developer will contribute more than £1m towards helping local people access employment opportunities to complement the work being carried out by the council and LDA. Two new transport schemes will transform the riverside area. East London Transit will connect Barking Riverside direct to the town centre/Barking station every six minutes, and the DLR will connect Barking Riverside with Canary Wharf.
In terms of ecology, Barking Riverside will have 50% less carbon footprint than 2006 building regulations, using innovative ideas from around the globe, such as green roofs, car clubs, waste management and water efficiency. Also being considered is an underground vacuum collection system to manage waste. London’s growth east over the next two decades is more than just an opportunity to provide new homes for Londoners and local residents.
Regeneration gives the opportunity to transform our area, and Barking Riverside proves that Thames Gateway can provide genuinely-sustainable communities as the city shifts eastwards, based on high-quality development.
We can change the way the world sees areas such as Barking & Dagenham.
Of course, a difficulty remains that this, and our other large-scale developments, will take two decades to deliver. This gives cold comfort over the next few years to our highly-marginalised resident population.
As Keynes said, ‘You are a long time dead’, and we must now ensure that existing communities start to see the benefits of this development as soon as possible. w
Rob Whiteman is chief executive of Barking & Dagenham LBC
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