The empty space

W hat do you build in the largest regeneration area in the UK?

Not a lot at the moment, if you listen to the head of the body responsible for regenerating a large part of the Thames Gateway. Peter Andrews, chief executive of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, warned earlier this year that thanks to the recession physical regeneration in the area would be ‘extremely limited for at least the next five to 10 years’ (Inside Housing, 20 May).

It’s a blow to the government, which aims to build 160,000 homes, schools and hospitals, roads, railway lines and parks in the 40-mile long area which includes east London, south Essex and north Kent.

Next week, house builders, commercial developers, architects and planners will gather at the annual Thames Gateway Forum in London’s Docklands to hear what speakers including Homes and Communities Agency boss Sir Bob Kerslake and Mark Clare, chief executive of house builder Barratt, suggest will reinvigorate the region.

There are plenty of ideas out there. In January, London mayor Boris Johnson unveiled his proposal for a £40 billion airport in the Thames Estuary, the most easterly part of the Gateway.

But what other bright ideas are there? Inside Housing asks an economist, a designer and an environmentalist how they think the regeneration should proceed.

Tim Leunig

Academic and Inside Housing columnist Tim Leunig is part of the department of economic history at the London School of Economics. He grew up in Chatham in Kent, which is within the Thames Gateway area, and says that realistic rather than radical plans for the area are the way forward.

‘I’m reluctant about the idea of masterplanning in general and I think the whole idea of the Thames Gateway is ill-conceived. I suggest building west of London rather than east. Why wouldn’t you build in an area where people want to live? There is a chance that by building towards the east, you will end up with homogenous poor communities living there. South Essex and north Kent are not thriving areas. The Thames Gateway is split in half by an estuary which is impossible to cross. There is no point building up an area that is divided.

‘Boris Johnson wants to build an airport in the Thames Gateway, which I think is a bad idea. Most people who fly regularly live in affluent areas west of London. My aim when I arrive into an airport is to get home quickly. Wacky ideas such as building an airport are the last thing the area needs. It also doesn’t need high-end apartments.

‘If you’re going to develop in the Thames Gateway, use it for light industrial warehousing, and build more of the same sort of housing that is already in the Thames Gateway - normal houses for normal people.

‘Development in the Thames Gateway would move London eastwards. If you are moving London one way or another, it should be westwards, towards the rest of Britain.’

Wayne Hemingway

Designer Wayne Hemingway began working on The Bridge, one of the first mixed-use development projects in the Thames Gateway with Dartford Council and landowner Prologis in 2002. Hemingway Design created the vision for the housing in the development. The first 200 homes have been built by Taylor Wimpey.

‘The recession will help the Thames Gateway. It means that people will stand back and think rather than going ahead and working with the same old developers. Regeneration should be about quality, not pound signs. In the past, people have thought of the quick buck.

‘There is absolutely no research to suggest that people like the kind of housing that has been built in this country over the last 20 years.

‘The Thames Gateway needs the type of housing that attracts the kind of people who like to discover areas, people who have a positive outlook on life - the kind of people who changed Hoxton in east London from a negative area into a positive one.

‘The Thames Gateway is a forgotten-about corner of England and it is ripe for discovery. If you want a place where people just exist, then build housing that just exists. If you want to build a pioneering community where people have aspirations, then build affordable housing that these individuals want to live in. It is people that provide a shot in the arm for areas, not money. You need to attract the kind of residents who will start businesses in Thames Gateway and put down roots there.’

David Bellamy

London-born botanist David Bellamy is patron of Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park within the Thames Gateway. He has been involved in environmental projects in the area for nearly 30 years, and believes that it is essential that salt marshes in the Thames Estuary are protected. He also thinks that the area should be promoted as a location for ‘staycations’ - holidays in the UK rather than abroad.

‘The River Thames is the living, breathing heart of the London Gateway. It is time for a renaissance in the area, with the Olympics 2012 for starters. But a planner’s dream could turn into an environmental nightmare. We cannot forget that the whole Thames Gateway area is sinking thanks to the warping of the Earth’s crust during the last ice age.

‘One of the greatest natural resources in the Thames Gateway is its salt marshes. No more of these should be destroyed. Others should be restored. Salt marshes act as a back-up for man-made barrages, calming the problems of tidal surges. What’s more, they provide bio-diverse habitats for birds and waterfowl, nurseries for fish and good pastures for organic cattle. Seafood, including mussels and oysters, can be found there, along with samphire.

‘I run the David Bellamy Conservation Awards for holiday and home parks that preserve and enhance the natural world. There are already lots of parks that have won my Gold Award in the Thames Gateway. They allow Londoners to have a healthy holiday on which they eat locally grown produce without vacation and food miles adding up.’

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