Our vision

The community at Barking Riverside is vibrant and ever-evolving. For the purpose of this Community Strategy, it is comprised of:

Existing residents: with current population figures indicating that 6,000 people already live at Barking Riverside between Rivergate and Northgate, the immediate community is young, diverse, and active. Even at this early stage of the development, residents are playing a fundamental role in shaping community life. Their needs, partnership, spirit, and history are the cornerstones of the vision for this Community Strategy.

Prospective residents: if NOPA is approved, the final population of Barking Riverside would be approximately 45,000 people. The vast majority of these residents do not live here yet, but, over the coming years, will set down roots at Barking Riverside when they move to the vitally needed new homes that are being delivered. Within this strategy, it is paramount that BRL considers the wants and needs of this incoming population.

Neighbouring residents: the substantial growth and investment at Barking Riverside should have a positive social impact for residents living in areas like Barking Reach, Thames View and Scrattons Farm. In delivering up to 65,000m2 of non-residential amenities, those in the Borough who live south of the A13 are likely to consider Barking Riverside as their nearest “centre”, even if they do not live within the development itself. BRL will consider the impact and opportunities for these communities in delivering this strategy.

School children: with up to seven schools planned for delivery, a defining characteristic of the Barking Riverside community will be the energy of its young people. Demographic work commissioned by BRL indicates that 3,000 of Barking Riverside’s current population of 6,000 are below the age of 15. Eventually, the majority of the pupils attending the schools will live at Barking Riverside, but both now and in the future, there will be pupils who travel here every day to access an outstanding education.

Community organisations: across Barking Riverside and Thames View, there is a network of established and influential community groups, who play an important role in advocating for local people and shaping priorities. By engaging with residents, as well as delivering vitally needed third-sector services, community organisations are valued partners in delivering this strategy.

Local businesses and workforce: the investment in Barking Riverside should create a local economy that will attract a diverse range of businesses. This will likely include small entrepreneurs – many of whom may live at Barking Riverside or the neighbouring communities. In addition to this, it is hoped that commercial partners from further afield are attracted by the vision, leveraging even more choice and opportunity for Barking Riverside’s residents.

Visitors: although meeting the needs of residents will remain BRL’s first priority, there are aspects of this Community Strategy that are designed to create a sense of destination. Through BRL’s events, retail, leisure, hospitality, and cultural offerings, it is hoped that visitors from across the capital will come an experience Barking Riverside – in turn delivering increased viability and vibrancy for the immediate community.

In 2016, Barking Riverside was identified as a “Healthy New Town” demonstrator site by Public Health England. With each of the demonstrator sites being provided a fund to pilot and testbed various health and built-environment innovations, Healthy New Towns was a strategy to achieve improvements in health outcomes through the comprehensive planning and development of new communities.

Specifically for Barking Riverside, the identified vision was to create “healthier lives for a Thames Ward of inspired and empowered citizens, supported by innovation”.

Bringing together health care providers, the Council and community organisations – as well as residents from across Thames View, Barking Reach, Barking Riverside and Scrattons Farm – for three years BRL employed a dedicated Healthy New Towns Lead. The Healthy New Towns Lead co-ordinated these stakeholders and oversaw the management of the various Healthy New Town projects.

These projects ranged from cycling initiatives and blue-space mapping to social prescribing trials and a resident-led radio station. Most importantly, Healthy New Towns created the Single Client Brief for the proposed Health and Leisure Hub at Barking Riverside. Agreeing the Single Client Brief, and a bespoke model of care that focusses on social prescribing and prevention rather than treatment, is undoubtedly the biggest legacy of Barking Riverside’s Healthy New Towns status.

As a central-government supported initiative, Healthy New Towns was time limited and has now concluded. Nonetheless, BRL remains committed to embedding the lessons learnt from Healthy New Towns into Barking Riverside via the delivery of this Community Strategy.

Wellbeing is also clearly articulated as one of the top community priorities in Thames Futures. Similarly, it was a critically important theme from the community consultation that was delivered to support NOPA. This Community Strategy will demonstrate the benefits of embedding a holistic approach to wellbeing across placemaking and non-residential delivery.

Effective placemaking is underpinned by comprehensive engagement and partnership. To ensure that the vision for Barking Riverside could be shaped by the community, in 2019 BRL created Thames Futures.

Delivered in partnership with the Young Foundation and a team of resident “Peer Researchers”, Thames Futures is the bespoke social impact assessment framework for Barking Riverside. Informed by over 1,000 engagements with residents across Barking Riverside, Barking Reach, Thames View and Scrattons Farm, Thames Futures is a research project that both defines a community vision for the future of Barking Riverside, whilst also clearly detailing how the development can have a positive social impact on the outcomes and priorities that matter most to local people.

Refreshed annually to ensure the vision can evolve and grow with the arrival of incoming residents, Thames Futures sets out nine aspirations for the future of Barking Riverside. These are:

1. Keep me connected with my neighbours.

2. Be somewhere my voice is heard and acted upon.

3. Improve my health and wellbeing.

4. Be a safe place for me and my neighbours.

5. Make it easy for me to get where I need to go.

6. Be a place I’m proud to call home.

7. Support me to achieve my potential.

8. Be somewhere my friends and family are excited to spend time.

9. Love and care for its natural and outdoor spaces.

This Community Strategy is shaped by the Thames Futures research. BRL wants to ensure that the opportunities that arise from NOPA successfully deliver and secure the nine vision areas listed above.

In thinking about the placemaking, health and non-residential offer that should accompany NOPA, BRL has listened and responded to the learnings from Thames Futures, as well as the other ideas and experiences that have been shared as part of the formal consultation process.

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By embedding the nine Thames Futures priorities within the Community Strategy – as well as the lessons learnt from Healthy New Towns – BRL believes that Barking Riverside will be best positioned to become a sustainable, inclusive, and socially cohesive place, where the themes of connection, participation, wellbeing, opportunity, nature, and amenity will be present.

The vision for this Community Strategy is most evident when describing the enhanced quality of life that community members will experience at Barking Riverside, which will become more distinctive as the development matures. In delivering the 20,000 homes outlined in NOPA, the viability of both social infrastructure and commercial amenity will increase.

Below is a list of Barking Riverside’s Unique Selling Points (USPs).

These are the most important features to mention when describing Barking Riverside.