One key benchmark by which Newham Council’s new housing strategy will be judged is how it deals with the Carpenters Estate, next to Stratford Station, which for almost 20 years has come to symbolise the scandal of official neglect.

Delivering results on behalf of the Council will be the responsibility of Populo Living, the Council’s wholly-owned housing delivery company, which has been charged with providing affordable housing under the new homes strategy.

Carpenters Estate is majority-owned by the Council with part being owned by the Worshipful Company of Carpenters based in the City of London. It was built in the 1970s, providing 710 homes, 434 in three high rise blocks, and 276 in low rise blocks and terraced houses.

Samantha White, manager of Carpenters and Docklands community Centre, and a resident on the estate for more than 30 years, says around 400 homes have been empty for more than 13 years.

Many promises were made to us residents over the years in regards to refurbishment and new builds on our estate but unfortunately these were just empty promises and we were just left to live in what seemed like a ghost town.

“Fly tippers frequently off loaded their rubbish around the estate as there was no one to stop them. I would never walk through the estate after dark as it was too dangerous.”

But she says the mood has changed in recent years, particularly after Rokhsana Fiaz became Mayor in 2018.

“She met with residents and promised she would do everything in her power to make our homes a safe place to live as well as make plans for all the empty homes,” says Samantha. She has praise too for Populo Living which is tasked with tackling the serious shortage of genuinely affordable homes in Newham and bringing back life to buildings and areas that have not been cared for.

Samantha says:

The Populo Living team have been fantastic to work with, they have regular meetings with us, updating us on the renovations. I personally feel a lot more positive about our estate now and the future is looking good.

The challenge of delivering results for residents is also taken up by Tee Fabikun, who has also lived on the estate for more than 20 years and is a former chair of the Tenants Management Organisation.

She says the estate used to be a friendly, neat, safe and beautiful community, but things have changed. “Today the people are still friendly but some of the pride is gone, some repairs are outstanding which can be frustrating because we want to feel like people care about looking after the place we live in,” she wrote in a Populo Living publication earlier this year.

She feels the mood is changing. “We have had three or four master plans that went nowhere, but now I’m more optimistic about regeneration,” says Tee. “I would put my money on Deborah Heenan [the chief executive of Populo] on delivering a plan that will work.”

The first place where change is expected is James Riley Point, a tower block which started to empty in 2002 and has only four families still in occupation. Populo have put forward a number of ideas including an ambitious plan to strip the block back to its concrete skeleton and refit it completely.

The plans are being examined by the Council and will be finalised after discussions with residents.

Public consultation over the council’s new housing strategy may be important for local democracy, but the key to ending years of delay and frustration over homelessness, temporary housing and inadequate social housing will be how quickly and how effectively action is taken.

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