Newham Council's housing company to work with Carpenters Estate Residents on future restoration

Newham Council’s housing company and key delivery partner in its ambitious council housing programme, has been given the green light to lead development talks with residents on Stratford’s Carpenters Estate.

At a Cabinet meeting this week (18 February), Red Door Ventures (RDV) was given approval to provide development management services for the next stage of work for the restoration of the estate. RDV, working closely, with the council, will now lead on discussions with residents to co-design a viable and deliverable development option. 

Since November 2018, extensive consultation and engagement has taken place with residents living on the estate and those who have moved away but have the Right to Return. Options were developed over the summer with residents who attended a number of workshops. RDV and the council will now work closely with residents to create a more detailed vision for the Carpenters Estate and turn this into a financially viable masterplan. This plan will contain a clear ambition for the future of the estate, looking at how it will ensure it is restored as a neighbourhood and how it will connect to the wider Stratford area. It will also demonstrate the plan for delivering additional homes.  

RDV, which was also given the go ahead to become a registered provider of housing enabling it to accelerate the delivery of genuinely affordable homes, will be renamed Populo Living. The name was taken from Newham Council’s Latin motto on its coat of arms ‘Progressio cum Populo’ which means Progress with the People’. It symbolises residents’ ownership of everything the company does, in line with the council’s direction, which is to put people at the heart of all services.

Since, the company was repurposed in 2018 by Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz to shift its focus from delivering homes at market rents to ensuring at least 50 per cent of all homes built are genuinely affordable, work is already underway on building the first 227 properties. This work is supported by the Mayor of London after the council made a successful bid to the Building Council Homes for Londoners programme and was awarded £107million in grant funding. As a registered provider, RDV will be able to directly access the GLA’s Building Council Homes for Londoners grant. 

As part of its business plan, it has set out proposals to deliver 4,700 properties over 15 years with 50 per cent of these available at genuinely affordable rents. 

Mayor Fiaz said: “Building more homes that our residents can afford has been a priority since May 2018. That’s why we’ve changed the focus of the council’s housing delivery company, so we can provide the homes our people need. 

“I’m really excited that Cabinet has tasked Red Door Ventures to drive forward our Carpenters Estate restoration programme with residents that live on the estate. They’ll be building on the 16 months of discussions we’ve already been having with our residents to ensure that the Carpenters Estate once again becomes a vibrant community neighbourhood. This reflects our agenda of involving residents in decision making and working collaboratively with them so that the skills, knowledge and experience of those who know the estate best are helping us shape future plans.” 

Published: 20 Feb 2020