Regeneration vision 

Building Sustainable Communities, Transforming Lives

Our vision is for a well educated, highly skilled population, able to access new jobs, from the varied opportunities available within the borough and elsewhere.

People will choose to live, work and invest here because Barking and Dagenham provides excellence and choice in the big things in life - work, education, health, housing and recreation - for individuals and for the family.

• A vibrant local economy
• A diverse and cohesive community
• A safe and attractive public realm and environment
• Excellent retail, leisure, cultural, community and social facilities
• A full range of housing choices
• Accessible and affordable public transport
• First class education and lifelong learning services, will provide the basis for greater personal wealth and a better quality of life for all our residents, including those who are not economically active
• Barking and Dagenham will realise its unique potential for growth in London's Thames Gateway, to become the first choice for the future in delivering Sustainable Communities, supporting diversity and creating opportunity for all.

Our pledge to our partners

The way we will work.

To achieve our vision we will create a climate of confidence and certainty for residents, partners and investors around our aims and delivery.

We will respond flexibly and intelligently to both opportunities and challenges.

We will listen to all the borough's communities, working with them to deliver the vision for the borough and raising and meeting their expectations of what regeneration can achieve.

We will support and encourage each other as colleagues and partners.

Our aims and objectives

Our aim is to encourage the development of a well-educated and skilled workforce, support existing businesses to grow and attract new investment. To achieve this aim we will:

• Provide leadership and coordination to economic development activity in Barking and Dagenham
• Help build the enabling environment for business growth - transport, the built environment and information and communication technologies
• Make Barking and Dagenham a business-friendly council
• Support business growth, retention and competitiveness, working with our partners to ensure that businesses are able to find the sites, training and advice that they need to thrive within our borough
• Promote social inclusion by encouraging the growth of social enterprise, intermediate labour markets and local small business development, so that all communities and neighbourhoods benefit
• Help local people into employment and into more rewarding, better paid jobs, by increasing their access to employment opportunities and improving their skills, mobility and employability
• Use our power as a major local employer and purchaser of goods and services to foster economic development
• Create a climate of certainty for investors, particularly in London Riverside and Barking Town Centre

• Ensure that new and existing communities are knitted together and that every effort is made to promote social inclusion and community cohesion
• Provide a good range of social and leisure infrastructure in accessible locations, particularly within existing communities
• Improve public transport to increase local people's access to jobs, leisure, waterways, local parks and community facilities, through the East London Transit scheme, the Docklands Light Railway extension to Dagenham Dock, a metro service on the C2C line, a new station at Renwick Road and improved north-south bus links
• Encourage beautiful and inspiring architecture, exemplary public parks and open spaces and the very best in public art
• Ensure that new developments are undertaken in an environmentally responsible way, including by building at higher densities
• Create places which people aspire to live in and attract and retain a more diverse mix of residents
• Inform, consult and engage with the borough's existing and new communities, building capacity within the local community where this is needed to support meaningful engagement.

Our aim is to lead the promotion of Barking Town Centre and work with partners to ensure the implementation of the Barking Town Centre Strategy. To achieve this aim we will:

• Build a more sustainable economy for Barking Town Centre and its surrounding areas, developing capacity in the retail, office and public sectors particularly
• Improve local people's skills to enable them to widen their employment opportunities and increase their incomes
• Improve the image and raise the profile of Barking Town Centre, so as to increase investment and attract new residents and visitors
• Encourage cultural development and the growth of a creative industries cluster in the Town Centre
• Maximise the potential of Barking Town Centre's excellent transport links, particularly Barking Station
• Improve the quality of the environment and the linkages between key destinations in the Town Centre
• Increase the quality and range of housing within Barking Town Centre and the surrounding area
• Ensure that good public service facilities are provided