The ‘Pride in Place’ funding will be used by Newham Council to improve parks, high streets and neighbourhoods, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

East Ham High Street and (inset) Rokhsana Fiaz — East Ham High Street and (inset) Newham mayor Rokhsana Fiaz

Parks in Beckton, East Ham High Street and neighbourhoods around Stratford are set to benefit from a £1.5million government grant.

Newham Council leaders agreed yesterday (Tuesday 18th) to accept the grant and put it towards regeneration projects around the borough.

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said the money would help “key projects” aimed at giving “our neighbourhoods the required investment that they need”.

The money comes as part of a government programme called ‘Pride in Place’ and is to be used for improving local infrastructure or public spaces.

Newham Council’s cabinet voted to put it towards three projects that are already underway.

These include seeing through a masterplan for “revitalising” Beckton’s parks, including the now-closed Newham City Farm.

The masterplan, adopted by the council in 2023, includes a new “community farm” on the site of the former city farm.

Cabinet member Sarah Ruiz, who represents Custom House ward where the farm was located, said she was “sure residents around that area will be eagerly looking to see what we’re going to do there”.

The other two projects are improving East Ham High Street, and expanding the regeneration of Stratford into Maryland, Forest Gate South and West Ham.

Fiaz said the money had been split in a “fair and proportionate” way between Newham’s three parliamentary constituencies. However, the council has not yet decided the exact split of the funding between the three projects.

Fiaz also said the £1.5m would be a “welcome additionality” to the £39.8m the council had received from the previous government’s levelling up fund.

She said that since then the council had since “invested a total of £60m in and across our neighbourhoods throughout the borough”.

Cabinet member Blossom Young asked whether splitting the £1.5m across the three projects could “dilute the impact” of the extra funding.

Council officers said they felt it was best to commit the funding to three existing projects due to the “short timeline” the council has to spend it in.

The funding comes with the condition that any money that hasn’t been allocated by March 2027 wil have to be paid back to the government.

Their report to the cabinet said this timeframe “limits opportunities for
new projects that would require design, consultation, planning, and procurement before works can begin”.

Officers also said they chose three projects where they thought the grant money might help them attract extra investment from other sources such as the Greater London Authority.

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