No change to Carpenters Estate plans despite raising of financial concerns

Newham Council's cabinet has decided to reject a list of recommendations from councillors who raised concerns over increased costs to an estate regeneration project.

Councillors sitting on the overview and scrutiny committee had raised financial concerns for the Carpenters Estate project in Stratford after the estimated borrowing costs jumped from £845 million to £1.4 billion in just over two years.

A council report, which was approved by cabinet members on 4 February, said the project had been hit by inflated construction costs, costs on new building safety requirement and an increase to the total number of homes on site.

Due to these challenges, the report said the total build programme would need to be extended from 11 to around 14 years.

On 18 February overview and scrutiny members called-in the approval of the report, arguing it needed greater scrutiny and accountability as the project raised ‘serious’ financial and ethical concerns.

A call-in allows councillors to scrutinise an executive decision which has not yet been implemented, but can result in a decision being reconsidered by cabinet.
Cllr Joshua Garfield, who was moved from his home on the estate when he was a child to make way for the regeneration, had concerns over the impact borrowing rates could have on the council’s finances.

Cllr Garfield said: “…I worry by the time our successors are sitting here, the only thing the General Fund will be paying for is temporary accommodation and this interest.

“There will be no other money in the budget, and we simply cannot leave that legacy for those that proceed us.”

The committee decided to send the original decision back to cabinet for reconsideration, and came up with a list of recommendations which included providing at least twice-yearly updates on the project and to consider different funding strategies such as selling some or part of the estate. 

A special cabinet meeting was held earlier this week (24 February) where Newham mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz responded to the recommendations before reading out the executive response.

She said: “As the cabinet report notes, the council is open to exploring alternative investment and delivery options to enable the programme to progress given the challenging economic context and the council’s own financial position.

“Officers have initiated conversations with a range of potential partners to explore opportunities to attract external investment to support our housing delivery and estate regeneration strategies, as part of an emerging policy direction by the mayor, that’s myself, and cabinet colleagues who provide member oversight on strategic housing delivery – that’s Cllr Zulfiqar Ali, Cllr Amar Virdee and Cllr Blossom Young.”

Ms Fiaz added: “These discussions will progress alongside the detailed design
work and the outcomes of them will inform the options appraisal that underpins the advice given to cabinet before it takes any decisions to progress into the construction phase on this programme.

“The executive therefore does not believe an independent review needs to be
commissioned, as all the various options set out by scrutiny are already being considered by officers as the strategy evolves, and there is a robust and rigorous internal governance arrangement in place to oversee the development of the strategy.”

Ms Fiaz said the project has experienced a ‘high inflation rate environment’, and no decisions had yet been made on the long-term financial strategy for delivering the programme.

As part of the call-in process, cabinet needed to decide whether it was going to change its previous decision or keep it the same.

Ultimately, cabinet members voted to keep the decision as it is, and would not be implementing an independent financial review into the Carpenters Estate project.

Regeneration history 

Once built, the estate aims to deliver around 2,300 new homes across a 28-acre site, of which 50per cent plan to be ‘genuinely affordable’ social rent homes.

However the Carpenters Estate has been subject to multiple regeneration plans for more than 20 years.

The estate has 710 homes in total, from the low-rise terraces to the three tower blocks of Lund Point, Dennison Point and James Riley Point, but in 2025 less than half of those are occupied.

Plans to regenerate the estate first began in 2003, after residents had complained to the council about poor building maintenance and asbestos and rodent infestations.

James Riley Point, which had deteriorated the worst, was to be demolished and the very first residents were decanted from their homes in 2004.

The other two tower blocks were set to be refurbished but this was deemed too expensive for the Labour-run council, and residents were eventually moved out of their homes and the low-rise properties on Doran Walk in 2009.

After Ms Fiaz replaced Robin Wales as the Mayor of Newham in 2018, the council decided to throw out previous regeneration plans and start again, due to how unpopular previous plans had been with residents.

Only a handful of original residents, including secure council tenants, private tenants, and leaseholders still live on the estate today.

In February 2024, the London Legacy Development Corporation approved a £1 billion masterplan from council-owned Populo Living, which will see around 60 per cent of the estate demolished.

The project has a 15-year timeline with the development being rolled out across eight different phases.

Last year the council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it’s aiming to deliver over 1,000 homes within the first six years of construction.