News on The Carpenters Estate

Welcome to the new Carpenters Estate newspaper

Brought to you by Populo Living , Newham Council’s Housing delivery company which has been repurposed to deliver genuinely affordable housing for Newham residents, but powered by you the residents of The Carpenters Estate who know this place best and whose voice will be at the centre of its future.

What’s happening on The Carpenters Estate?

We want this to be the start of a new way of working on The Carpenters Estate where we commit to informing you about what is happening, provide you with lots of opportunities to get involved and through this ensure you have influence over the future of the neighbourhood.

Who are Populo Living?

Populo Living is the new name for Red Door Ventures. But it’s not just a name change; our focus has changed. We are Newham’s housing company, and are tasked by the Mayor in her manifesto pledge on housing, and the Council to meet their priorities of providing 50% genuinely affordable homes across all housing developments on land that the Council owns.

Our commitment is to make sure you get all the information you need to make the best choices for you and your family.

What have Populo been up to?

Hi, I’m Deborah, the Chief Executive of Populo Living – and I’m very excited to be working on the programme to transform The Carpenters Estate. I am often in and around the estate so if you see me please do come over and say hello.

DEBORAH HEENAN, CEO Populo Living

A message from the mayor

From the moment I was elected back in May 2018, I’ve been committed to ensuring that the residents of The Carpenters Estate are at the heart of decision making about its future. Following the feasibility work done in 2019 you have told the team working with you, that you do want change - but on your terms and need to know exactly what it means for you and your families. This has always been at the forefront of my approach for The Carpenters Estate, and we remain committed to listening and working with you all. That’s why I’m asking the team working with you, to get all the information over to you as soon as they can.

You’ll be aware, that under my administration, Newham Council aims to have 50% of new homes built in the borough at genuinely affordable levels; with at least 50% of homes built on The Carpenters Estate at social rent. We are committed to restoring this great neighbourhood in Newham so that it becomes a vibrant community for all our residents.

I remain clear that I want you – Carpenters residents and those who have previously moved out with the promise of returning – to help shape the plans and that it will be you that gives us the go-ahead to move forward whichever direction that is in.

Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Mayor of Newham, @rokhsanafiaz

‘People at the Heart of Everything We Do’

James Riley Point

Over the past 5 months we have been carrying out a detailed assessment of the three towers to understand whether it would be possible to refurbish them to create homes that are fit for the future. The exercise is looking at potential refurbishment in terms of creating homes that we know we can afford to deliver, are attractively designed internally and externally, highly energy efficient so that they are affordable to heat and improving private and community outdoor areas for all the future residents. This is not just a lick of paint, we are investigating stripping it back to just the structure and refitting it so that we can show you the type of quality we are committing to providing for you. Ambitious stuff!

To assist our understanding of how realistic it is to refurbish and inform future decision making , we commissioned an experienced professional team to look at all aspects of the towers in terms of structural soundness, design flexibilities, heating and electrical systems, carbon make- up, and outdoor space creation.

The exercise is ongoing and we hope to complete the assessment of James Riley Point by the end of August but initial investigations have been positive.

On completion we will want to consult with residents to share the findings and get your feedback. It is clear from our early assessment that all three towers have very different structural constraints and design flexibilities, and that further work is required for each tower. We will be providing you with more details in the coming weeks and get your thoughts on progress.

Meet the new team

Populo have now appointed a Design Team who will be working alongside us & you as residents to help us put together a plan to transform The Carpenters Estate. Some faces will be familiar and some are new but Proctor Matthews and Metropolitan Workshop who worked with you on the last stage are part of this team.

They were appointed in mid July 2020 and are looking forward to working with you and involving you every step of the way as we consider the next steps for The Carpenters Estate. We have tasked them with getting to know both you, the residents, and the estate as quickly as possible so that we can start talking about things that WILL happen rather that things that might happen.

Some of their team will be on the ground on the 20th of August to introduce themselves, talk to you about The Carpenters Estate and set out some immediate opportunities for you to get involved.

What they’ll be doing next

Their work will be a continuation of the last stage and they are currently preparing information to show you that will cover:

1. What could happen with the towers.

2. A cost assessment of the options we presented in 2019.

3. How we can work together to develop a more detailed masterplan.

4. What the Council’s landlord offer is.

We know we need to build trust with you by listening to what you want and giving you the certainty you need to make decisions for you and your family.

Have a look at the timeline below to see more of what is coming up on The Carpenters

Key fact:

You decide the future of The Carpenters Estate! Before any decision is made about replacing homes on The Carpenters Estate it’s up to you to vote whether the project can go ahead.

This is called the Ballot process and currently we think this would take place in Spring 2021.

Job advert: Carpenters Community Liaison Officer

Are you equally good at talking and listening? Are you organised and good at making sure things get done? Do you know The Carpenters Estate and the surrounding area well?

Then this job could be for you!

We are looking for an enthusiastic, hard working and outgoing individual who will have two key responsibilities on The Carpenters Estate:

1. Keeping residents informed about the restoration proposals, collecting their thoughts and ideas on the proposals, feeding this information back to the project team so they can act on it.

2. Identifying, reporting, and keeping track of repairs, maintenance and issues on the estate

There will be training and support as part of the role and we would welcome applications from people who want to job share.

If you are interested, get in touch and see the full job description at: www.populoliving.co.uk or email Aisha Butera: aisha.butera@populoliving.co.uk

Coming up

The latest from Carpenters and Docklands Centre

The Carpenters and Docklands Community Centre is a charity supporting local communities. Responding to the Covid-19 crisis, focus has shifted the Dockland’s Centre’s approach to the provision of food, toiletries and cleaning products - open to everyone living on The Carpenters Estate, particularly those who are vulnerable and in need. The centre has also worked to deliver provisions to our local emergency services and care facilities.

Volunteers deliver items on Mondays and Thursdays, but residents are also welcome to visit the centre on weekdays. We can also collect prescriptions for local residents if you get in touch with us.

If you are interested in receiving some food and other products to help you get through this difficult period then please email: ben.north@docklandsettlements.org.uk or call/text Samantha on 07931 940 749.

Source

Source Partnership are continuing to work as YOUR independent advisor on the plans and programme. Rob Williams is your key contact for Source Partnership.

If you have any concerns or questions, contact Rob on 0800 616 328 or email rob@sourcepartnership.com