Canning Town Regeneration

About the project

Canning Town is undergoing regeneration. The design team have been working closely with the community to design a masterplan for 1,750 new homes and public spaces for the London Borough of Newham. Over the years the area has suffered from neglect and consequently is an area of high deprivation with many households in temporary accommodation. The Council’s aim is to provide much needed, genuinely affordable and highly energy efficient housing and so create a more vibrant, safer and healthier neighbourhood. In the meantime, the Council has embarked on a refurbishment programme to bring all the existing homes up to a decent standard while the community waits for the regeneration to happen.

We hope that residents feel confident talking to us, as we offer an impartial service and help them understand how the regeneration will affect their household, if and when it happens. When we talk to residents, we know that regeneration is not popular with everyone, and we understand that regeneration can be controversial. But we also know that many residents, after many years of waiting, want to see change in their part of Canning Town.

Our involvement

NewmanFrancis has been appointed as the independent tenants’ and residents’ advisory service. Our role is to support residents throughout the long regeneration process. We work with the community to make sure that they have a say in the regeneration of their area and can get involved at a level that suits them. That could mean talking to our team when we are out and about in the community or attending workshops and drop-ins about the regeneration.

Our role is to ensure Canning Town residents are consulted, engaged, and kept involved throughout the regeneration process. We provide independent and impartial advice, as well as working with residents to ensure they are aware of how the regeneration will impact their household.

Canning Town Steering Group

NewmanFrancis set up the Canning Town Steering Group which plays an active role in helping the Council make important decisions about the regeneration. The group is chaired by Judith Jorsling, a local resident and former councillor. Judith brings a great deal of experience and local knowledge to the project. For many of the other Steering Group members, getting involved in their community is a completely new experience and so NewmanFrancis has made sure that everyone has the skills and knowledge to play an active role in the regeneration process.

NewmanFrancis supports the Canning Town Steering Group in several ways such as: organising and facilitating monthly meetings with the Council, training sessions so that everyone understands the regeneration and what can sometimes seem quite a complex process, plus lots of ongoing support with a wide range of issues, sometimes related to the regeneration but often related to everyday problems faced by the community.

• NewmanFrancis helped the Steering Group work closely with the Council to develop the Design Brief for the regeneration – all the things that the community want to see in the new neighbourhood when it is complete
• The Steering Group has set up its own procurement panel which helped choose Jestico and Whiles as the Design Team for the Vincent Street site and the overall masterplan
• The Steering Group were clear that they wanted larger family sized homes (four and five bedrooms) to be included in the plans for the Vincent Street site
• NewmanFrancis supports the Steering Group in making sure the Council are aware of local housing management and estate issues

The Canning Town Steering Group are a lively and committed group and do a great job representing the interests of the whole community. NewmanFrancis are still welcoming members into the steering group. You can view the minutes from all the Resident Steering Groups below.

If you want to learn more about the Resident Steering Group or are interested in getting involved, please contact us via the details below.

Outreach and residents’ issues

We understand how busy residents are in their day to day lives and how much time work and family commitments can take up. A key part of our involvement is to get out and about as much as possible and talk to the community as part of our regular outreach sessions. We keep residents informed about progress with the regeneration, make sure they know about any upcoming workshops and drop-ins and listen to their concerns and questions. We often take up housing management and repairs issues on behalf of residents. Through our engagement we have been able to flag residents’ housing needs to the council and get these resolved quickly.

We provide an additional service for the many vulnerable members of the community, (many of whom are housebound and cannot attend the design workshops), and also carry out home visits to make sure they understand the regeneration proposals.

Vincent Street kickstart site

A planning application to build the first new homes on the Vincent Street site was submitted to the Council in November 2022. Prior to this several design workshops took place when the community was able to comment and feedback on the emerging designs for the Vincent Street site. The planning application is linked to current GLA funding for affordable homes. As the site is vacant, it is not subject to a resident ballot and offers an opportunity for the Council to kickstart regeneration in the area and demonstrate to residents that at long last the Council means to deliver on a co-designed estate masterplan.

Around 147 new homes are currently in development on the Vincent Street site. All these homes will be for social rent and offered to residents who live on Canning Town Estate.  The new homes are being delivered by contractors Hill and the new homes will be ready to move into in 2027.

You can find out more about the kick start site on the Council’s Co-Create site here

The Resident Ballot

The Mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration sets out key conditions for the regeneration of existing estates, including no net loss of social housing, an increase in affordable homes, full rights to remain for tenants, a fair deal for leaseholders and freeholders and mandatory ballots for schemes that require grant funding from the Mayor.

The Canning Town resident ballot is a major milestone and was a chance for residents to have their say and decide the future of their neighbourhood. Residents voted in the ballot in July based on the Landlord Offer which contains the Council’s commitments and legal obligations to the community as well as the designs for the new homes and neighbourhood.

The ballot as held in July 2024 and 56% of residents turned out to vote with 70% of those voted in favour of the regeneration of Canning Town.

NewmanFrancis delivered 160 hours of outreach prior to the to ensure that every resident was aware of the ballot, had received and understood the landlord offer and ensured they were registered to vote.

You can view a copy of the Landlord Offer and other important documents here

NewmanFrancis Coffee sessions

NewmanFrancis host coffee afternoons from 4 – 6pm for residents to drop-in and ask questions regarding the regeneration or deal with any housing management issues.

Coffee afternoons are always held on the last Monday of every month at the Regeneration Hub:

Canning Town Regeneration Hub – Vincent Street Resident’s Hub/Grow Box – Opposite Rogers Road, Canning Town E16 1LW

For more updates and information.

to view more information plans and documents regarding the Regeneration please click the link below to visit Newham London’s Co-Create project page.

click here: