Marks Gate estate, Barking & Dagenham

Circa 500 homes have been earmarked for potential demolition by Barking and Dagenham Council.

Barking and Dagenham's draft Local Plan 2019-34 has singled out the Marks Gate estate and neighbouring Chadwell Heath industrial estate area for comprehensive redevelopment on the basis that it will soon benefit from a new Crossrail station.

It says that detailed proposals will be drawn up in a masterplan and presented in a Supplementary Planning Document.

In the meantime, 53 homes on the estate have been earmarked for immediate redevelopment by the Council.

Barking and Dagenham's options appraisal report claims that residents in these blocks have reported damp and condensation issues and that the homes on this site don't maximise their economic potential.

The scheme is being progressed by the Council in conjunction with its subsidiary affordable housing company Reside which provides intermediate rented housing "to people who are in employment, but can’t afford to buy or rent privately and have limited access to social housing"

The Council says that tenants wanting to return to the redeveloped site will pay 'social' rents and that the 5 current leaseholders will have the 'Right to Return' to the redeveloped site. But its rehousing policy provides little detail on how this works in practice - it offers an 'equity loan' scheme but it is discretionary and dependent upon the size of the gap between the value of leaseholders' current homes and the new ones proposed to be built. (para 2.9)