Our Area: Spatial Portrait Background Paper August 2014 Images Contents 1. Purpose of this background paper .................................................................................. 3 2. The regional context ....................................................................................................... 3 3. Historical context ........................................................................................................... 6 4. The Legacy Corporation area ......................................................................................... 8 5. Demographics .............................................................................................................. 11 6. Business Growth, Jobs and lifelong learning ............................................................... 14 7. Health ........................................................................................................................... 21 8. Housing ........................................................................................................................ 23 9. Environment and built form ......................................................................................... 25 10. Infrastructure ................................................................................................................ 27 11. Future of the area ......................................................................................................... 29 12. Key Messages............................................................................................................... 32 2 1. Purpose of this background paper 5.1 The NPPF requires that Local Plans are prepared using a proportionate, adequate, up-to-date and relevant evidence base “about the economic, social and environmental characteristics of the area”. This background paper draws together the current social, economic and environmental profile of the area to demonstrate a spatial portrait of the area at present. 5.2 It is one of several that have been prepared in order to show that the Local Plan is Justified (i.e. supported by evidence) Effective (i.e. able to be delivered) and Consistent (i.e. in line with national planning policy). 2. The regional context 2.1 The Legacy Corporation area is located within east London, approximately 4 miles from the Central Activities Zone. It lies at a key strategic location with proposed connections to Europe via the Eurostar from Stratford International Station and Crossrail which will provide fast links across London and beyond once completed. 2.2 The Legacy Corporation area also sits at the meeting point of the London-Stansted- Cambridge-Peterborough growth corridor and the Thames Gateway Growth Corridor. Within London, the area is directly connected to the major business and growth hubs of Central London, Canary Wharf and the Royal Docks. 2.3 Identified by the Mayor as one of London’s key future growth points, probably the most important for the next twenty five years, particularly within Policy 2.4 of the London Plan - The 2012 Games and their Legacy, the area in combination with much of its immediate surroundings, provides a significant land resource for meeting part of the need for housing and employment that will be generated by the projected growth of London within the Plan period. Falling also within the Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area, the strategy for growth of the area within this Plan is therefore designed to meet the local need of those living within the area but also to develop a series of places that are part of their surroundings and provide opportunities for housing, employment, business and leisure for those living in the surrounding communities and more widely in the Growth Boroughs, while also providing a London-wide strategic resource within the context of the overall growth of London. 3 Figure 1 Contextual diagram 2.4 The potential of the area to provide for identified needs goes beyond the development of land; the social, economic and environmental characteristics of the area mean that the Legacy Corporation’s role is also to deliver wider benefits for the local area, London and beyond. 2.5 East London has some of the highest levels of deprivation in England. In 2010 the English Indices of Deprivation ranked Hackney as the second most deprived Borough, followed by Newham and Tower Hamlets ranked third and seventh and Waltham Forest fifteenth1. Hackney and Tower Hamlets have some of the highest numbers of areas within the most deprived in England. This provides a useful context to the area, demonstrating why the legacy of the 2012 Games in terms of improving the life chances of residents is key to the aims and remit of the London Legacy Development Corporation. 1 Department of Communities and Local Government, 2011- English Indices of Deprivation 2010 4 Figure 2- IMD map (Reproduced from the Retail and Leisure Study, 2014) 2.6 In order to address the issues faced by many living within the most deprived wards of the then Host Boroughs (now Growth Boroughs) the Government, the Mayor of London and the Boroughs in 2009 agreed a Strategic Regeneration Framework2 (SRF) of public sector action to address the level of disadvantage evident in those communities in comparison to those living in London as a whole. It identified seven core themes: 2 Host Boroughs Strategic Regeneration Framework 2009 & Strategic Regeneration Framework Progress Report 2009-2011 5 Creating a coherent and high quality city within a world city region Improving educational attainment, skills and raising aspirations. Reducing worklessness, benefit dependency and child poverty. Homes for all. Enhancing health and wellbeing. Reducing serious crime rates and anti-social behaviour. Maximising sports legacy and increasing participation. 2.7 As shown in Chapter 2, underlying the SRF is the concept of ‘Convergence’ which is the ambition that over a twenty year period residents of the Host Boroughs would achieve the average expected in successful communities. 2.8 Each Legacy Corporation Borough has its own Sustainable Communities Strategy. However, for the purpose of this plan, the Strategic Regeneration Framework and its Convergence principle, as a jointly agreed framework, is considered to provide the most appropriate expression of the four sustainable community strategies. 3. Historical context 3.1 With settlement in the area of Stratford dating back to Roman times, the Legacy Corporation area, like much of its wider surrounding land in the Lower Lea Valley was historically an area of marshland and farm land along the spine of the River Lea and its subsidiary channels. The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded eight tidal mills in this area, including Pudding Mill, City Mill, Waterworks Mill, Abbey Mill and Three Mills, names that are reflected in current location and waterway names in the area3. In 1135 William de Montfichet built a Cistercian abbey at Stratford Langthorne, with the Abbey subsequently owning a significant amount of land in the wider area. 3.2 The Lower Lea Valley, from the early development of industry associated with the mills in the Middle Ages, has continued to be a focus for development of industry and transport infrastructure through to the 20th Century, in particular providing a source of land for the location of industry to the east of London, firstly around the waterways, and then in the 19th Century linked to the development of the railways, with a significant railway hub at Stratford. In Hackney Wick and Fish Island, the growth of industry was intermingled with the building of back-to-back terraces of housing for workers and their families. 3.3 Significant change occurred in the second half of the Twentieth Century, with development of post-war housing estates and clearance and redevelopment of bomb damaged areas following World War II, which particularly in Hackney Wick and Fish Island changed the character of the area to one of predominantly employment use, with a subsequent decline in the density and type of employment. 3.4 The changes to the area in the latter part of the 20th Century resulted in environmental degradation and under utilisation of employment land, along with the focus here and in the surrounding administrative areas of some of the most deprived wards within the UK. As a result, the area became a focus of plans for regeneration designed to stimulate change and improvement, linked to an opportunity to provide significant new development to help accommodate London’s increasing population and economy. 3 Source: Three Mills Conservation Area, Character Area Appraisal, London Borough of Newham, 2006 6 Recent history and future opportunities 3.5 The first significant stimulus for change came with the decision to route the second phase of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through east London to St. Pancras, with an international station at Stratford. This was accompanied by the development of plans to promote major development around the station within the area taken by the mainly defunct Stratford Rail Lands, which resulted in planning permission being granted for a large retail and commercial led development, extending Stratford town centre, a significant number of new homes in what is now East Village, Westfield Stratford City and the planned International Quarter. While the majority of the retail and leisure development has now been built out, a significant amount of office and residential floor space remains to be built. 3.6 Also in 2005 London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic