2022 marks 10 years since the London Olympics and Paralympics. The Stratford Vision will provide an overarching spatial vision for the wider Stratford area, with a particular focus on the town centre. It connects the population of Newham to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and is the major centre for services in the area, which includes Stratford High Street, Stratford Station, the existing Stratford Centre, Old Town Hall and office buildings such as Broadway, Jubilee and Bridge House). Stratford is home to much of Newham’s heritage and history, as well as being the place best suited to realising the opportunity for more diverse and exciting culture in our borough.
In 2020 the Council successfully bid for HM Treasury’s Local Infrastructure Rate loan funding for up to £7.25m based on a proposal to deliver three new footbridges, working alongside the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The programme proposals have been inspired by Patrick Abercrombie’s 1944 London Plan vision of the River Lea as a ‘green wedge’ providing ‘every piece of land welded into a great regional reservation’.
A Levelling Up award of £2m has been made to Lochnagar Bridge, which will service key development sites of over 40,000 new homes and more than 280,000 sq m of commercial space in Newham and Tower Hamlets. A further £500,000 is secured for cultural interventions to the Leaway Path that will contribute to improved walking and cycling routes.
Newham is the first London borough to use livelihood, wellbeing and happiness as its prime measure of economic success as part of an ambitious response to the coronavirus pandemic. The ‘Towards a Better Newham’ Covid-19 Recovery Strategy sets out how it will work with residents, stakeholders and partners to combat the economic impact of Covid-19 on its communities as it rebuilds a better Newham.
A core part of the strategy is six town centres and 13 high streets where investment and revival will bolster these places as centres of community and civic activity as well as commerce and business as part of two successful £40mLevelling Up Fund projects: 15 Minute Neighbourhoods and Connections to Opportunity. Important themes and objectives for the Newham bids relate to supporting investment that will enhance transport connectivity as part of the administration’s 15 minute neighbourhoods plans, as well as other vital regeneration plans to revive local town centres, high streets and heritage sites will also benefit from the funding.
Additionally, as part of our transition to a green economy in response to the climate emergency, the bids will support learning and employment opportunities through our plans to develop thriving digital, data and creative sectors in Newham.
Population projections 2021 360,061
Population projections 2050 508,097
London plan new homes (ten-year target) 38,500
Building council homes for Londoners (four-year programme) 1,000+
Dave Hughes, Director of Inclusive Economy and Housing
Dave.Hughes@newham.gov.uk
“Our recovery strategy is a fundamental shift to embed an economy which places the health and wellbeing of our residents and race equality central to our aspirations of inclusive growth, quality jobs and fairness in Newham. That’s why, as we reimagine a better borough, economic security, health, equality and the environment will be the focus of our rehabilitation and recovery.”
See 'Overview'