Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing introduced a report on a proposed funding bid via the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) for up to £219m to support a number of major, strategic infrastructure and development projects in the Borough.

The main component of the bid, which would be led by the Greater London Authority in conjunction with the Council and Be First, related to land assembly costs in the Castle Green area of the Borough amounting to £150m.  Other projects included improvements to the Renwick Road junction (£14.6m) to facilitate further development on Barking Riverside, new rail stations at Castle Green (£22m) and Beam Park (£17.9m) and improvements at Barking Station (£15m), although the Cabinet Member advised that the latter project was now unlikely to be progressed as part of the current HIF bid.

The redevelopment of the Castle Green area also offered the opportunity to address the severance created between the Becontree Estate on one side of the A13 and the area to the south that led to Barking Riverside.  The ‘undergrounding’ of a two-kilometre stretch of the A13 would also pave the way for what would become the largest regeneration project in the Borough, creating up to 15,000 new homes, modern employment space and improved rail and other transport facilities.  The Cabinet Member referred to the indicative timetable for the land acquisitions and confirmed that further reports would be presented to the Cabinet in the months ahead on the potential use by the Council of its compulsory purchase powers and the detailed masterplan and phasing of the regeneration plans.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Endorse the submission of the ‘Transforming London Riverside’ Housing Infrastructure Fund Bid and delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance and the Cabinet Members for Regeneration and Social Housing and Finance, Performance and Core Services, to approve the final bid documentation;

(ii)  Agree, in principle, the development strategy for the Castle Green area (shown in Appendix 2 to the report) including the future use by the Council of its Compulsory Purchase Order powers, subject to the HIF bid being successful and a further report to Cabinet in respect of fulfilling the criteria referred to in paragraph 3.3 of the report;

(iii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer to approve the allocation of up to £300,000 of Council funding to cover the cost of master planning for Castle Green should other funding not be available; and

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Director of Law and Governance, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Finance, Performance and Core Services and Regeneration and Social Housing and the Chief Operating Officer, to enter into all relevant contracts and agreements in relation to the HIF.