Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration presented a report on the opportunity for the Council to bid for funding towards new housing developments under the Greater London Authority (GLA) London Housing Zones (LHZ) programme.

The Cabinet Member referred to the GLA’s criteria for applications and outlined the merits of potential bids in relation to Barking Town Centre, Barking Riverside, Chadwell Heath and Beam Park.  Bids in relation to Barking Town Centre and Barking Riverside were considered to be the most viable at the current point in time and, to that end, draft vision documents for those projects had been developed and were included at Appendix 1 to the report.

Issues which arose during the discussions included:

·  The detrimental impact on the Town Centre of the proposed sale by Barclays Bank of its lease on the landmark premises in the Town Square to a bookmaker.  It was noted that the Local Government Association was lobbying the Government on behalf of local authorities to change the planning regime to give local authorities powers in respect of all new betting office premises, but the likelihood was that any changes would come too late to enable the Council to prevent the current proposal. 

·  The desire for Barking Railway Station to be categorised as a Zone 3 station in line with other re-categorisations approved by Transport for London, particularly in view of the £5m investment recently announced by National Express to implement an improvement scheme to the Grade II Listed station by 2017.

·  The need to learn lessons from previous developments in the Borough to ensure that all new developments were of a high quality and were not compromised by third party deadlines.  To that end, the Cabinet Member for Regeneration referred to the possibility of a visit being arranged to view an exciting development site managed by Grainger plc who were soon to be the first commercial private rented sector (PRS) company to operate a PRS scheme in the Town Centre.

·  The need to deal with the ‘oppressive entrances’ leading into the Barking Riverside area through the Council’s regeneration plans.

·  The role of the Adult College, the Technical Skills Academy and other upskilling initiatives in the Borough should be prominent in the Council’s applications to the GLA.

The Leader advised on a recent positive meeting with the Mayor for London and a number of his advisers to discuss the Council’s regeneration plans for Barking Riverside and a further meeting would take place during the week with the Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. 

Cabinet resolved:

(i)  To agree to the development of a London Housing Zone bid for Barking Town Centre and Barking Riverside, as referred to in Appendix 1 to the report; and

(ii)  To delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Regeneration and Housing, the Leader and the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, to approve the final bid for submission to the Greater London Authority.