The UK has a serious housing deficit estimated to be in the region of 5 million unbuilt homes. That'll be why the government's recently advanced its new town strategy with plans including 15,000 new homes at Thamesmead Waterfront and 21,000 more at Crews Hill and Chase Park. But we also have a problem with tens of thousands of homes planned but never completed, especially near me where the Lower Lea Valley is awash with construction sites cleared but insufficiently built upon. To try to determine the extent of the problem locally I've been for a walk from West Ham to Pudding Mill Lane, increasingly perturbed by the extent of the unbuiltness.
Here's a very rough map with all the major planned redevelopment parcels coloured in.
Green for 'construction underway or complete' and yellow for 'nothing yet'.
In what follows I'm going to assume flats are a good thing, not sterile highrise neighbourhoods, because the more housing we build round here the less chance your local Green Belt has to be sacrificed.
1) Twelvetrees Park(aka West Ham Village) 3800 new homes planned, 750 built (26 acres, 85% of site empty)
This one sits immediately alongside West Ham station in an absolutely prime location, but also on the site of a former gasworks so hard land to remediate. Last year they finished the first wedge of flats overlooking the station, creating the illusion it's a lot more complete than it is, and also opened up two footbridges so the first residents can escape. A new station entrance is planned but thus far barely started because the contractor went bust, so even that's way behind schedule. If you cross for a peek you enter a brief canyon of public realm before descending alongside a tumbling water feature to a set of fountains that residents are advised not to play in. A small Sainsbury's has opened to cater for the captive audience but the staff looked seriously bored yesterday. Eventually there'll be an extensive linear park but so far they've only completed a a small scrappy triangle, beyond which is an expanse of delineated brownfield that'll be covered at a snail's pace. Proportionally speaking we're still at Twotrees, nowhere near Twelve. approved 2018, began 2021, first homes 2025, estimated completion 2040s
2) Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks 2150 new homes planned, none started (23 acres)
This is about as challenging as housebuilding gets, melding 2000 flats into the largest group of Victorian gasholders in Britain. The cluster of seven is readily seen from the train between West Ham and Bromley-by-Bow stations, and it's this excellent connectivity which has persuaded developers St William it's worth the expense of construction. They plan to build seven circular blocks of flats inside the existing ironwork, a bit like at Kings Cross, then add six more circular blocks to help get their moneysworth. One bombed gasholder becomes a central water feature while another will have its unique radial truss lifted to crown a 'innovative open air space'. Affordable housing barely gets a look in. Also it's all smoke and mirrors because each gasholder's cross-bracing has to be removed and then "re-erected with required alterations" so the flats can be built inside. It's an astonishing place, as I discovered when I was lucky enough to get a tour of the toxic brownfield in 2022. But it'll look incredibly different once the transformation's complete, which is absolutely no time soon, and thus far all that's appeared are a few diggers and some scaffolding. decommissioned 2010, plans approved 2024, construction begins 2027
In 20 years time you'll be able to walk from the back of Twelvetrees Park to the back of Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks, opening up a much-needed local connection. I had to walk the long way through the industrial estate instead, a diversion which enabled me to confirm that Poplar Riverside (2800 homes) remains 75% empty, Rivermark (530 homes) is mostly underway and Calico Wharf (800 homes) is a desolate void after its Chinese owners pulled out two years ago.
3) Bromley-by-Bow North 1200 new homes built, 50% of site untouched (20 acres)
This is a stripe of land tucked between the A12 and the River Lea, just south of the Bow Roundabout. It's been in developers' line of sight for ages, and I attended a consultation on future plans way back in 2009. However only one central chunk got the go-ahead, becoming a fortress of 219 flats in 2016. The triangular neck closest to the flyover was supposed to follow as the footprint to a residential skyscraper but that's never happened. In 2019 the railway's edge began its transformation into a 965-flat site called Leaside Lock, and this is finally nearing completion seven years later. But the land around Tesco has never even reached the planning permission stage, perhaps held back due to complex land ownership, and I for one am delighted about that. The intention was to build a lot of flats and a tiny replacement supermarket, disadvantaging thousands of existing residents, and I continue to pray that this gets left alone while developers focus on hundreds of nearby acres they've demolished already.
4) Sugar House Island 1200 new homes planned, 33% occupied (26 acres)
IKEA bought this site in 2012, a tongue of land between two of the Bow Back Rivers. They handed it on to another developer sharpish, the intention being to mix commercial space with semi-dense housing. Buildings along Stratford High Street were prioritised so they were mostly done by 2019, then the focus shifted to a residential stripe behind. Wander round and the neighbourhood feels quite substantial, so only if you exit the site and look across the river do you see quite how much remains unbuilt. By my calculations two-thirds of the site remains unconstructed and at this rate it'll end up being well over 20 years between initiation and completion. Nobody in the world of residential development, it seems, is capable of hurrying up a bit. approved 2012, began 2017, first homes 2020, estimated completion 2030s
5) East Quay 750 new homes planned, none started (3 acres)
This Leaside site, just north of the Bow Roundabout, could be the poster child for slow development. Half the site was razed by Crossrail. I attended the initial consultation event in 2018. The remaining oil silos were flattened in 2021 after developers London Square bought the land. Their plans included a 33-storey tower but this fell foul of post-Grenfell rules on double staircasing so had to be redesigned, at which point the project stalled and nothing whatsoever has happened since. The hoardings still say 'East Quay Coming Soon' but it totally isn't, red tape and finance have killed it, and if you visit the URL underneath you just get 'Error 404'. If anyone's living here before 2033 I'll be amazed.
And so we come to three post-Olympic developments where... not a sausage.
6) Pudding Mill 950 new homes planned, none started (13 acres)
Since being handed back after the Olympics not a single foundation has yet been built in Pudding Mill, only a handful of meanwhile uses. Chief amongst these is the Abba Arena, a world class attraction that squats on what will one day be Pudding Mill's highrise centre, but which currently has permission to remain until March 2031. The Snoozebox Hotel opposite is protected until 2028 so the only patch currently up for grabs is the expanse of empty hardstanding on Marshgate Lane which has been empty for years. The latestplanning documents suggest works might begin here in the autumn for completion in 2030, but that's already a 2-year slippage and will likely slip further. It's shocking that a key Olympic neighbourhood won't see a single resident until almost two decades after the closing ceremony. named 2011, plans approved 2023, first homes 2030?, estimated completion 2034
7) Bridgewater Triangle 575 new homes planned, none started (6 acres)
This is essentially Pudding Mill East, over on the other side of the Greenway. It's the development whose towers are due to overshadow the Manor Farm allotments, you may remember, so a bit further ahead in the planning schedule. I thought they'd started given the riverside footpath's been closed for a year but no, they're just doing embankment works to create a nicer walkway and the first ground-breaking's not due until June next year. So so slow. construction begins 2027, estimated completion 2031
8) Rick Roberts Way 750 new homes planned, none started (5 acres)
And finally, a tongue of land beside the Greenway which was used as a coach park in 2012. It's subsequently been used to sell used cars and currently supports a large Padel club, having always been at the end of the redevelopment queue. One end is due to become a secondary school and the other end housing, but unbelievably no progress has been made due to "the development agreement not being finalised with the preferred bidder in 2025". While the LLDC reviews "alternative delivery strategies" this site continues to be wasted, and for goodness sake how hard can it be to build some houses?
I know it's been a self-selected sample but even in this small patch of the Lower Lea Valley that's 12,000 homes which have been pencilled in but not yet built. Is it a planning system logjam, is it a lack of available construction companies, is it the financial squeeze, is it an excess of red tape, is it commercial reticence to flood the market, is it because private developers can only invest money from sales made, or is it just that building new homes is always a painfully slow process? Whatever, there are huge swathes of East London where everyone would like to build homes but nobody is, seemingly because it's too difficult. Perhaps we should stop bickering over which bits of countryside to plough up and focus instead on turbocharging construction on brownfield sites already agreed.
