Life on London’s ghost town estate with more than 400 homes empty while thousands sit on waiting lists

In its heyday, the Carpenters Estate in Stratford housed hundreds of people, including families spanning generations. But for more than 20 years, the estate’s fate has hung in the balance of multiple regeneration plans, leaving some residents doubting anything will ever happen in their lifetime.

The estate has 710 homes in total, from low terraces to the three tower blocks of Lund Point, Dennison Point and James Riley Point, but today less than half of these are occupied. Tenant and lifelong resident Tee Fabukin fondly remembers that her estate was once home to a thriving community living in harmony with one another.

“We were all so proud of our estate, we wanted it to be the best, we had our own newsletter and we had so many activities,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) . It was so peaceful, it was very, very safe. 127 languages ​​were spoken on the estate, so you can imagine the amount of peace and harmony that existed there.”

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Plans to regenerate the property first began in 2003 after residents complained to the council about the building’s poor maintenance and asbestos and rodent infestations. James Riley Point, which had suffered the worst, was slated for demolition and the first residents were evicted from their homes in 2004.

The other two tower blocks were to be refurbished but this was deemed too expensive for the Labor council and residents were eventually moved out of their homes and small properties on Doran Walk in 2009. Only a handful of the original residents , including secure council tenants, private tenants and leaseholders such as Mrs Fabukin still live on the property today.

As one of the few original residents left on the property, Warren Lubin explained, “What he agreed with me was that I would be decanted and moved to a property and come back when the work was done. The question now is for how long. is a piece of string can the council be trusted? Mr Lubin is one of the only residents left in his block and, having lived through regeneration scheme after regeneration scheme, has a morbid view of the future of the Carpenters Estate.

“This is an estate of an aging population. I think the council is quite happy in its ivory towers saying, ‘Let’s wait for these men to die … but they’re dying now’,” he explains. “I need new heating, I need a new kitchen, but well, I won’t get it until the regeneration comes, but at this rate when will it be? We should have had this 20 years ago.”

Ms Fabukin, who runs a vital food bank with other volunteers on the property, agrees with her friend and neighbor Mr Lubin. She said: “It’s more talk than action, we’ve been talking about this for 20 years, so when are they going to start building? Many residents are now unwilling to listen, they feel fed up. Some may even feel that (the council) is waiting for them to die. We just hope that something will happen in our lives, although many people doubt it.

“It wears out the residents”

Paul Watt, visiting professor in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics, who visited the estate in 2011 and 2012 to interview residents for his book, Property regeneration and its grievances, says he knows of several residents he worked with who have since died.

He explained: “Residents have been left for years and years in a sense of limbo, waiting for this to happen which never seems to happen and that’s exactly what happened with the Carpenters Estate. The long-term nature of it lasts so long. , psychologically exhausts the residents, and – this is terrible, but it is the truth – people of a certain age die long before the promised land of a new home ever happens.”

Professor Watt added: “Many council tenants want some improvements, they are aware that the houses are not properly maintained. They want (improvements) to happen, but they don’t want demolition and burnt-earth reconstruction.” After Rokhsana Fiaz replaced Robin Wales as mayor of Newham in 2018, the council decided to scrap previous regeneration plans and start again due to how unpopular the previous plans had been with residents.

A vote was taken in 2021 and, according to a council spokesman, 73% of residents backed the plans, which will see the estate triple in size and density to deliver 2,152 homes, 50% of which are set to be ” social market”. rent’. The latest £1bn masterplan from council-owned Populo Living, which will see around 60% of the estate demolished, has a 15-year period, with the development taking place in eight different phases.

By the time the redevelopment and regeneration of the Carpenters Estate is complete, it will have been 35 years since the first residents were moved from their homes. Prof Watt said: “(The estate) has had regeneration schemes for 20 years… 20 years and not a single dear house has been built, can you imagine that?

“The council is talking about a completion date that will be 15 years from now, that means the whole thing from start to finish will be 35 years … people are worn out by the process.” Local housing campaign group Focus E15 has been highly critical of the multiple regeneration plans that have emerged and has always campaigned for a refurbishment of the property over demolition.

The group claims that for more than a decade, more than 400 homes have sat empty on the estate, all while Newham is facing the brunt of an acute housing crisis, with more than 37,000 people on the housing waiting list and the highest number of families in temporary accommodation. throughout the UK.

This led to the group, among them a number of young single mothers who were evicted from their homeless shelter in 2013, occupying some of the empty houses on the property a year later in a protest against the council and the lack of affordable housing available. their.

A spokesman for the group said: “Ten years on, more than 400 flats are still empty and Newham has lost millions of pounds in rent and council tax while paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to win the ballot, for a plan that has not yet… When it comes to fruition, it will not be for local residents struggling in hostels or hotels and temporary accommodation, but for those who can pay exorbitant rents for apartments of luxury”.

Meanwhile, Professor Watt says the country’s housing crisis has been exacerbated by not enough social housing being built and existing social housing being demolished or sold. He doesn’t think the availability of many privately rented homes or those available for purchase will solve it. He said: “Certainly in London and the South East there is no way millions of people on low incomes are going to buy their own homes, it’s just not going to happen.”

What the council had to say

A spokesperson for Newham Council told LDRS: “The Carpenters Estate project is one of the largest and most ambitious estate regeneration programs in London, which will ultimately deliver 2,152 high quality homes on the site of 28 acres in the heart of Stratford to restore a vibrant area. The council stated from the beginning that 50% of the housing will be rented on the social market”.

They added: “Projects of this size and complexity are never a quick fix and the 15-year master plan for the Carpenters Estate was granted planning permission by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) in February this year. In response to the acute need for social rented homes, the council has taken the decision to apply for additional planning permission to immediately refurbish James Riley Point to deliver 132 new homes that local people can afford.” They went on to say the council wants to deliver more than 1,000 homes in the first six years of construction.

Have you ever lived at Carpenters Estate? Contact Ruby by email at [email protected]

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