Morning:
9°c
Thames Gateway 'will miss target for 160,000 homes'
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor26.11.08
THE Thames Gateway project will fail to meet Labour's target of 160,000 new homes by 2016, the Government's own regeneration chief predicted today.
The warning from Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the new Homes and Communities Agency, risked blowing apart claims by housing minister Margaret Beckett that the £9billion scheme was still on track. She used a speech today to declare that she would not "start watering down" the massive housebuilding plan for a swathe of East London.
Mrs Beckett set out a 47-point plan for the area, including proposals for an "eco-quarter" to develop environmental technology, as well as up to £35million to create green and open spaces and a new scheme to tackle skills shortages.
But Sir Bob, whose new agency is due to be launched on Monday, said that recession-hit housebuilders would need a "stock-take" of the time needed to achieve the scale of housebuilding planned.
The HCA will bring the regeneration agency English Partnerships, parts of the Housing Corporation and a number of projects from the communities department, including Thames Gateway delivery, under one roof. Sir Bob told the FT: "These were clearly ambitious targets at the beginning and the market conditions have made them even more ambitious.
"I think the Gateway is capable of creating that level of jobs and housing, but what we need to look at is whether that might happen over a longer timescale."
Mrs Beckett accepted the downturn would pose challenges, but insisted this was no time to "start watering down" ambitions for the Thames Gateway. She said the scheme was a prime example of Gordon Brown's pledge to use public spending to keep the economy afloat.
"Over the past year, the first contracts have been awarded for the construction of the world's most advanced container port, London Gateway. New schools and campuses have opened across the region, including the Financial Skills Academy at Tower Hamlets. Construction has begun on the Olympic stadium three months ahead of schedule."
Sir Bob said: "We can't eliminate the credit crunch, but we can use our public investment funding to keep the show on the road."
Reader views (5)
I agree completely with the comments of Greenwich Resident.
Infrastructure as an afterthought will never work. Transport planning for the area was a disaster, and short-sighted action by a small vocal group of local residents scuppered the original plans for the Greenwich Waterfront Transit (GWT) and succeeded in delaying the scheme. The residents should never have been put in that position. The infrastructure should have been there as the massive new development took place in the early 2000s. It might just have saved the area from the state it is in now.
The GWT scheme will now be nothing more than a bus route along a main road which will have taken over 10 years to deliver. What a waste of time and money. Even with the GWT, Woolwich and Plumstead stations will still be a bus ride away, condemning the area to remain isolated. Other ameneties are almost non-existent - unless you count a Tesco Express and a Dominos Pizza joint as the high spots of urban/suburban living! The massive problems of the ghetto that has been created will continue long into the future.
- Escapee From West Thamesmead, London
Public projects such as The Thames Gateway plan and Crossrail do not appear to be about solving housing, transport or economic woes of ordinary people. Instead, we find that the Thames Gateway project is purposefully built on a flood plain and the taxpayer is left to carry the stupid risk assessment decisions by Brown's Government. Crossrail is being built to bolster the financial district which thinks it is owed social welfare for failure. The Government policies are more about providing a welfare system for performance related failure, guess what, you have forgotten about the electorate and the people. Boris Johnson is no better than the last Mayor and like the US, it is clear that real change is needed.
- Val Keller, London UK
Having lived in Thamesmead for over 4 years, i can agree that the level of infrastructure is poor. A prime example is the frequency of buses from Abbey Wood station into thamesmead, which at the time most commuters are getting there means often a 20-30 minute wait!
- Chaz, Perth, Australia
The Thames Gateway developments in West Thamesmead, Greenwich have been badly planned and are a disaster. Infrastructure to support the rapidly growing community seemed to have been an afterthought - and still has not been fully addressed. The agencies involved seem disorganised and unplanned and soon distance themselves from the disasters they develop. So it seems they will never evidence base their policies nor respond to their mistakes.
The Gateway isn't an attractive place and it's not an easy place to access services or travel to work from. Southeastern trains from Kent are already over capacity - more homes will make that worse.
Infrastructure must come first before more homes are built to avoid building contemporary ghettos that are of no use to anyone.
- Greenwich Resident, West Thamesmead , London
I don't know about other areas but the development going on in Greenwich is terrible. Thousands of new flats are being built and there is no investment in infrastructure. The trains and tubes are already at capacity and the doctors are no longer accepting new patients and god help you if you need childcare.
- Nick, london
