Three large housing developments aligned with transport upgrades have been given loans worth £309 million from the government’s housing agency, Homes England
The three schemes, in Brent Cross, Silvertown and Barking Riverside, have a total capacity for up to 20,000 new homes.
Two of the developments are in East London, at Silvertown and Barking Riverside, while the largest development is in North London, at Brent Cross.
The Silvertown development will be able to borrow £105 million to develop a 62-acre brownfield site that includes the still derelict Millennium Mills. Work started back in 2015 when GLA approved £12 million to clear asbestos out of the building and make it safe for conversion into workspaces.
However, since those works completed, nothing much has happened, and the cost of stabilizing the dock walls around the site has risen, and this is understood to have pushed the development back until additional funding was secured.
The intention, as was under the old plans, is for the Mills building to become workspaces, with new housing built around it on the vacant land. Phase one of the development will be for 1,000 of the planned 3,000 homes and has recently been approved by the local council.
As part of the works, a new low-level pedestrian and cycle bridge across Royal Victoria Dock will link the site to Custom House Crossrail station – in addition to the existing high-level bridge further along the dock.
Phase 1 housing and new bridge (c) Silvertown Partnership
Over at Barking Riverside, a loan of £56 million have been provided to deliver upfront infrastructure for the 10,000 homes being built on the site. The loan may also allow an additional 1,000-2,000 homes to be built on land that was thought to be unusable.
Finally, at Brent Cross, a £148 million loan will bring forward a planned 6,700 new homes approximately four years faster than they would have been without the funding as part of a larger development which will include a new railway station at Brent Cross West.
All three funding packages are loans, so need to be paid back when the homes are sold.
But where will they London crime and drama TV shows when Silvertown is developed???
This is all good news.
An expedient reaction that could save thousands of Jobs and bring forward much needed homes, leisure and retail facilities.
I’m particularly keen to see, if, the extra Homes at Barking will mean an expanded Dagenham Dock or an extension of the Barking Riverside Line to Barking Central Markets.
I’d also be keen to see a feasability study on expanding the Coolant Tunnel at the Barking Power Station as a means to create a lower Thames Crossing Foot or Rail and open up the Catchment Area to Thamesmead and Belvedere.
If you mean Dagenmham Market, the new station is practically next to the market. Barking market is in Barking town centre, next to Barking station.
It is my understanding that Dagenham Sunday Market will not be reopening, even post-Covid.
The Riverside Station was orientated to allow an expensive River Tunnel to Abbey Wood. However, its not complete yet and the DLR Option appear’s now to be the favoured Route to Abbey Wood
I agree that the Station is only 15 minutes from the Site but that’s a fair walk after a Bottle of Chablis and some delicious Food.
Fenchurch Street is unlikely to be expanded and there are large Developments further out towards Tilbury being planned.
Trains need to route around the expensive and congested Zone 1 and connect with other Main Lines.
In my view the Barking to Gospel Oak Line with modifications such as :-
A Station on the Meridian Line at Markfield Park
Reopening St Ann’s Station
Closing South Tottenham Station
Routing direct to Camden Road and York Way via Gospel Oak
all provide better accessibility at low Cost and are achievable with Signal and Timetable Improvements.
Dagenham Dock has a Rail Connection and could be an alternate Terminus for London Overground with 8 Trains an Hour, in total, to both their and Riverside.
It alao provides a possible Link for DB Freight to connect with King’s Cross in the Off – Peak. The definition of which must be redetermined to meet actual Demand.
One, further hope’s that the River will be used in a Parisian Fran Prix style to transport the majority of Goods.
An enlarged ( Coolant Tunnel) Foot or even Rail Tunnel under the Thames is possible Mechanised or with Compressed Air as presumably is a Passenger Ferry to allow access from South London? If possible it could dovetail nicely with the Downtime of the Silvertown Tunnel Project.
Revitalising the Goblin Line with Trains from the Northern Heights to, Kings Cross, Barking and Stratford is as yet not mainstream thinking.
Closing South Tottenham Station: Really? There’s an OSI with Seven Sisters
I heard that there’s an investigation into joining the LT&S line to HS1 at the Dagenham tunnel portal so that trains can go direct to/from St Pancras. This all depends on there being capacity to spare at St Pancras, of course.
Fenchurch Street is undergoing a signalling upgrade which will increase throughput of trains significantly