The regeneration project to receive cash injection for transport links and community facilities, alongside almost 11,000 homes

The £500 million investment in Barking Riverside, one of the UK’s largest regeneration projects, has been agreed by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and housing association and developer, L&Q.

The Section 106 agreement, reached with the Barking and Dagenham Council and Transport for London, means the project has secured funding for a new TfL Overground station connecting to central London in 22 minutes, land for seven schools, a new centre with commercial, retail and leisure space, a 2km riverside walkway, an ecology centre, a combined health care and leisure facility, a cycling hub and two local retail and dining hubs.

Lucinda Turner, director of spatial planning at Transport for London, said: “Barking Riverside will be a vibrant new area of east London and our improved transport connections will be vital for those who live, work and visit there. It’s important that we promote good growth – and this funding will help support more sustainable travel with the delivery of our planned London Overground connection, and improved bus, walking and cycling routes for people of all ages through the area.”

The half a billion pounds infrastructure funding will also go towards securing employment, skills and training in the area that will ensure locals benefit from the opportunities created by the regeneration scheme.

Barking Riverside will also be London’s first and only NHS Healthy New Town, which will embed health into design and living. Plus, half of the 10,800 new homes the development will offer will be affordable.

Sadiq Khan, said: “This is an incredibly exciting project for Barking & Dagenham, but also for the whole of London. As we tackle the biggest housing crisis of a generation, major developments like Barking Riverside will deliver thousands of the genuinely affordable new homes Londoners desperately need. As well as housing, our investment will create the new transport, education and health services needed to turn this into a thriving new community.

“London will be home to 10 million people in the next decade — I’m working to plan for that growth and to provide genuinely affordable homes for Londoners. That will mean increasing density, building on small sites, and using my powers to deliver more affordable homes.”

Matthew Carpen, Project Director for Barking Riverside Limited, said: “This is another significant landmark for Barking Riverside, and signals ‘lift-off’ for all future activity on site. It commits us to over £0.5billion of infrastructure investment over a 15-year build programme. This agreement demonstrates the dedication to our partnership with the local authority and TFL, to deliver the goals of the project – a new piece of City with improved connectivity and a multitude of opportunity for both existing and future residents.”

The regeneration project is delivered by Barking Riverside Limited, a partnership between L&Q and the Mayor of London. It will create a new town the size of Windsor on the banks of the River Thames in east London. Until the 1990s, the area was home to three power stations and a large landfill site. The new Transport for London Overground station is due to open in 2021, with the wider scheme scheduled for completion by 2034.

*(Pictured left to right: Matthew Carpen, Project Director – Barking Riverside Limited; Councillor Darren Rodwell, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council; Andy Rowland, Managing Director – East Region, L&Q.)