Peabody and TfL to contribute to 'Housing, communities and culture'

Aerial view of Thamesmead looking west up the Thames towards London City Airport, the Royal Docks, and Canary Wharf (image courtesy of Peabody)

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Peabody's Executive Director, Thamesmead, John Lewis will be contributing to our housing forum this month at the Museum of the Home.

John is leading Peabody's work to develop sustainable places – neighbourhoods that bring about lasting social, economic and environmental benefits to communities.

Using the learning from the ongoing regeneration of Thamesmead, John is working with teams across Peabody to define the best ways to improve and look after other neighbourhoods for the long term.

John is a professional member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a Master of Arts in Urban Regeneration. He has been leading the Thamesmead regeneration since 2016. Before this, John led the expansion of Letchworth Garden City and Milton Keynes.

Joining John Lewis will be David Christie, Head of Growth and Master-planning at Transport for London (TfL). David specialises in public policy and analysis and has been strategic in embedding a new approach to achieving sustainable development for TfL post Covid. He developed TfL's approach to scenario planning and horizon scanning which was critical to the organisation's approach during the pandemic. From 2008-2016 David combined his role at TfL with work as a local councillor in Newham and as part of the council’s leadership.

At Future Cities Forum David will be discussing TfL's work to develop the outline business case for the DLR extension to Beckton Riverside and to Thamesmead. The extension would support low-carbon developments unlocking the delivery of 25,000 - 30,000 new homes along the extended route.TfL says investment in this scheme would also support a UK-wide supply chain, supporting growth and job creation across the country

With the majority of respondents supportive of the proposals, 58 per cent of respondents said the extension would make their journeys quicker around their local area and 75 per cent said it would make journeys into wider east and southeast London easier.

The consultation, launched earlier this year, received 1,254 responses from members of the public and 29 from a range of stakeholders including pan-London transport user groups, local businesses, environmental groups, politicians and adjacent boroughs.  In addition to the consultation, TfL ran sample polling in locations in Beckton, Gallions Reach, Thamesmead and Abbey Wood where 85 per cent supported or strongly supported the proposals.

A new DLR station would be built at Beckton Riverside, with a tunnel built under the River Thames linked to another new DLR station at Thamesmead. It would build on experience from 2009 when the DLR was extended to Woolwich Arsenal, tunnelling beneath the River Thames, with housing growth following in areas including Woolwich, Canning Town, and the Royal Docks.

TFL states:

'London's annual net contribution to the national economy is at a record £43.4bn. Investment in this scheme would support a UK-wide supply chain, supporting growth and job creation across the country. National Housing Federation analysis shows each new housing unit created at least one new job, so through this project we would create least as many jobs as housing units.

'The DLR extension would also directly support the creation of up to 10,000 jobs, benefitting London and the national economy, and it would provide quicker journeys to other parts of east London like Stratford and the Isle of Dogs, with direct connections to central London via the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, transforming housing, employment and leisure opportunities for the people who live in the area.'

TfL has been working together with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the London Borough of Newham and the Greater London Authority (GLA), as well as landowners Peabody, Lendlease, abrdn, St William (Berkeley Homes) and Homes England to support the delivery of new homes, improved town centres and better access to jobs within and from Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead.

TfL and its partners submitted a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) to Government in 2023 outlining how an extension of the DLR could have a transformative effect on the area.  An interim Outline Business Case (OBC) will now be developed with this work anticipated to be completed in spring 2025.  The OBC will respond to Government feedback to the SOC and form the basis of future development and funding discussions.

The scheme is currently unfunded so part of this work includes developing a funding and financing strategy for the project, which would likely draw on funding from the private and public sectors, including TfL, local, regional and national sources. The aim is to agree an affordable solution by 2025, to enable construction to begin as early as 2028 and opening the DLR extension to customers in the early 2030s.

TfL also continues to discuss with Government its wider capital funding requirements and the link between transport investment, productivity and economic growth.

Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Mayor of Newham, who joined Future Cities Forum at its Here East discussion event last September, said:

 " I am delighted to see such strong community support for the proposed new DLR extension. The project has the potential to unlock a whole new development in the south of the borough, which would allow us to press ahead with plans to build more affordable homes, improve community spaces, as well as opening up the riverfront to all our residents.

"We will continue to apply our co-production model to ensure residents' voices are listened to and heard in all the important decisions we make to shape the future of the borough. So I welcome this vote of confidence in the extension plans and look forward to working with Newham residents and project partners as we take the next steps to make these plans a reality."