White Arkitekter’s plans for 900-home estate regen approved

Barking & Dagenham council has approved White Arkitekter’s plans to redevelop the 1960s Gascoigne Estate with 900 homes.

The development proposals, drawn up by the council’s regeneration subsidiary, Be First, include plans for a new 1.25-acre park, green roofs and solar panels, tree planting and community spaces and shops.

Designed around the idea of a 15-minute city – where all essential local services and shops are within a 15-minute walk - Councillor Darren Rodwell, leader of Barking & Dagenham council, said the plans would see the creation of one of the greenest and most sustainable neighbourhoods in the capital.

Rodwell said: “It will be a new model of 21st-century urban design to meet the challenges of climate change and provide quality homes for ordinary working people.”

Plan were approved by Barking & Dagenham’s planning committee late last week. Be First is a regeneration and development business wholly owned by Barking & Dagenham council with a remit to build 50,000 new homes and stimulate the creation of 20,000 new jobs.

The approval is the latest phase of the redevelopment of the Gascoigne Estate, following the approval in September of another 200-home phase of the scheme.

Jacob Willson, head of design at Be First, said: “We have designed a greener, more sustainable Gascoigne which will create a healthy neighbourhood for our residents with a great new park at its heart.”

Linda Thiel, director of White’s London studio, said the approval was “wonderful” news.

”The projects we are working on have given us the opportunity to improve the quantity and quality of housing available for local people, and enable a paradigm shift in how the public spaces can be used, a move from estate to neighbourhood,” she said. ”This will become a place that provides green, active, social spaces for all ages and abilities.”