Over 20 years ago in July 2005 London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. The result catapulted Newham, which was to host the main venues for the games, into the regeneration spotlight. It’s a borough which has pretty much stayed there ever since.
Since 2013, Newham’s economy has grown above the London average; 26,000 new homes have been built and thousand of new jobs have been created. Yet Newham has room to grow further and help tackle London’s housing crises. Our new Local Plan which is currently at examination in public identifies sites for up to 35,000 homes to come forward over the next 15 years.
Large swathes of the Borough suffered as result of post war industrial decline, particularly around the Royal Docks in the south of the Borough. What this means is Newham has an abundant supply of brownfield land as well as close proximity and unrivalled connectivity to Central London. Crucially a lot of this land is in public ownership controlled mainly by the Council and the GLA.
As a democratically accountable body we want to use our role as landowner and planning authority proactively, ensuring our communities and local businesses feel the benefit of investment. However, we know that none of these new homes or wider benefits will materialise without partnership and investment from the private sector.
Borough wide, we have given permission for 27,000 new homes in recent years. In December alone our planning committee granted outline master plan permission for a mixed-use development, including 6,000 homes and around a million square meters of commercial space in Silvertown. On a site which has been stalled for decades, the Silvertown scheme is being delivered in a joint venture between Lendlease and the Crown Estate.
Earlier this year we welcomed the first of almost 4,000 residents to new homes in the Twelve Trees development at West Ham which Berkeley is delivering on GLA owned land. In the 2025 budget the government made the welcome announcement that funding has been secured to extend the DLR to Thamesmead, including a new station at Beckton Riverside. At the same time demonstrating that local and central Government can be joined up, we approved St Williams planning application for the delivery of the first phase of development in the area.
And there is more (!) in autumn last year we published our Newham Growth Plan. The plan sets the vision for growth over the next decade, highlighting the solid fundamentals which underpin Newham’s potential. In our growth plan this we have identified a pipeline of 10,000 new homes that could be delivered on Council owned land. Mainly this will be through the delivery of three estate regeneration programmes.
Since 2021, we have held and won three resident ballots, submitted two outline masterplan applications and completed two ‘kick start’ developments, meaning new homes have been delivered in advance of the full scale programme commencing. We are actively engaging with the market to find partners who want to work with us to bring these homes forward. There is much to do and the door in Newham is very much open to new investors in 2026.
Darren Mackin is Director of Place Making at the London Borough of Newham. He leads the Council’s planning, regeneration, housing delivery and economic development services. He is responsible for developing and delivering strategies, partnerships and interventions to secure inclusive growth in Newham.
