The area’s regeneration

The Charity’s working area remained in one of the most stubbornly poorest areas of East London.  Up to 2007 there had been 11 years of the Government’s Single Regeneration Programme that barely dented the situation.  The Council had got nowhere and in a frustrated moment one of its chief housing officers dubbed the locals as being “not normal”.

But in 1999 the Jubilee Line came to Canning Town: that brought long term consequences.  Property prices were buoyed by the better transport links and consequently in 2000 Newham Council developed a regeneration plan involving the demolition of 2000 council built homes and the building of 10,000 private dwellings. 

Initially local people, the vast majority of whom were secure council tenants approved so long as their rights were to be observed and the demolished council homes were replaced with new stock.  They thought the regeneration was a fair swap for having their existing blighted homes brought up to standard.  They believed there would be a standard decanting operation where phases of demolition would be followed by new build for those tenants to be rehoused and so on.  They thought they had signed up to a right to return to the area and in a survey 80% wanted to return.

Then, soon into the process, there was a significant change of leadership in Newham with an elected Mayor taking the reins of the regeneration.  The word “return” somehow changed to mean that tenants could “return” as council tenants as if they had ever stopped being council tenants.  From then on tenants were to be offered accommodation somewhere else, indeed anywhere else so long as it was out of the area.

Council tenants could only be removed if they were offered alternative secure tenancies and so there was no option but to offer them first dibs on any properties that became available.  That meant there was precious little left for the housing needs of local people.  Newham generated by far the highest number of children in unsuitable and temporary accommodation which is a well understood marker of distress.

It became clear that standard decanting was out and demolition to make way for overwhelmingly private flats (with the nearest walking distance from the tube) was in.  In the rush to pave the way for the developer whole blocks were cleared too early and the empty dwellings it became a scandal.  The Council’s solution was to lease these blocks to a private landlord who used insecure tenancies so the homes could be cleared at short notice whenever the land was required without a Council duty to rehouse those families.  In the interim the private landlord doubled the rent: the difference paid by the taxpayer via housing benefit.