Peabody lodges plans for 3,500-home Dagenham Green

Housing association Peabody has filed plans for 3,502 homes in a mixed-use scheme at Dagenham Green. The housing association completed its purchase of the 45-acre former Ford Dagenham site from Europa Capital and St Congar earlier this year, after pursuing a £100m deal as revealed by EG in 2020. Outline plans lodged with Barking & Dagenham would see 1,952 private homes and 1,550 affordable homes, providing housing for an estimated 7,739 people. There will be 775 London affordable rented homes and 775 intermediate shared ownership homes. This equates to 44% of homes as affordable, or 47% by habitable room. The social housing will be backed by an £83.7m affordable housing grant from the Greater London Authority. The development is also expected to make a £9m CIL contribution. Peabody has proposed building heights ranging from one to 19 storeys, a secondary school, 54,000 sq ft of industrial space and 47,000 sq ft of flexible commercial floorspace. There will be new streets, public realm and a five-acre urban park. A linear park will link the site to nearby large developments at Beam Park and the Beam Parkland corridor, providing cycle routes and pedestrian pathways. Further ‘piazza squares’ and ‘pocket parks’ will contribute additional open space. Dagenham Green will have 10 areas with differing characters. Plans have been designed by architects at PRP and HTA Design. The site is located to the north-east of Dagenham Dock station. It was historically used as a press shop by Ford Motor Company, before it was decommissioned in 2012 and subsequently vacated when manufacturing ended in 2013. Europa and St Congar cleared the site and conducted remediation, between 2016 and 2021, before handing to Peabody. The planning application has been lodged jointly by Europa and Peabody. The application follows the appointment of Catalyst’s Ian McDermott as chief executive, with former boss Brendan Sarsfield retiring. McDermott will oversee the merger of Peabody and Catalyst to create a the UK’s second-largest housing association with a portfolio of more than 100,000 homes. Speaking to EG earlier this month, McDermott said he wanted to create an organisation with “more locally focused elements”. He said: “With this devolved structure, what we are trying to really create is people with authority and power to do what the local area needs.” In this way, the Dagenham scheme will respond to local demands, led by project director Peter Cross. The site sits within the London Riverside Opportunity Area. Barking & Dagenham’s draft local plan has a target of 50,000 homes in the wider region, with the site allocated for comprehensive mixed-use development including circa 3,000 homes. To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@eg.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @EGPropertyNews Image © PRP and HTA Architects