Barking & Dagenham is changing
Barking & Dagenham has transformed the way it provides services and has become London’s biggest growth opportunity with a growing reputation as a place to invest and prosper.
We have a laser focus on delivering for our residents – whether it’s tackling the inequalities people face or, quite simply, delivering the best services every day.
We’re creating and fostering the conditions and opportunities for people to thrive here – and for our residents to live healthy, fulfilling lives for longer, with more choice and control, better financial resilience, in safe, supportive, and inclusive communities.
Local people must benefit from the growth and positive changes that are happening here, and to achieve this we’re addressing the root causes of poorer outcomes, including poverty and inequality.
It’s not enough to just bring new jobs and homes to the borough – making sure no one is left behind is fundamental to our plans.
We’re looking for exceptional people who really understand what the challenges are today and can deliver the outcomes we need to raise aspirations.
At the same time, you will need to have the drive, determination and resilience to understand our vision for the future and make change happen.
It’s a programme which has empowerment at its heart and needs leaders who are ready to empower colleagues throughout the organisation to make decisions, recognise the role our partners have to play in helping us to deliver our objectives, and co-produce services alongside our residents. We need you to provide innovative leadership that pushes the boundaries of what is possible, using your professional skills and expertise to help take us to the next level in our journey.
Fiona Taylor, Chief Executive
About the Council
Barking and Dagenham has always been a bit of the north in the south with a twist of the East End, but what really defines us is our drive and ambition.
It’s a little-known secret we have one of the most ambitious growth agendas in the country. Two film studios, the three iconic markets of London are moving here – Billingsgate, Smithfields and Spitalfields – along with a brand-new train station and the promise of 50,000 homes over the next 20 years. And we want to do so much more, and it’s not just about bricks and mortar.
But blink and you miss it. Over the past five years the council has attracted inward investment up to £4bn and the borough has become the biggest housebuilder in London, with one in five of the capital’s affordable homes being built here.
In addition, a former pharmaceutical factory has become home to some of the most innovative technologies in the world. Media, data, life sciences and engineering are already shaping the borough’s inward investment.
We haven’t just got two brand new film studios coming out of the ground. Our film service, Film Barking and Dagenham doubles up as a box office for Netflix, Amazon, Apple and others, as our locations play host to dozens of international blockbusters.
We want to ensure our community share the benefits of economic growth. In 2017, we launched Be First – our council-owned regeneration company – to unlock developments and make sure developers abide by our rules about inclusiveness.
Reside, our council-owned affordable landlord, offers council comparative rents by leasing private rented property available to people in employment – just like the first council houses. B&D Energy is our council-owned green energy company, which will offer affordable sustainable energy which is just what our residents struggling with the cost of living need.
We’re forming new partnerships and bringing vital anchor institutions to the borough including Coventry University which now has a London campus in the former Civic Centre in Dagenham. And for the first time in 100 years, we are building more municipal housing at council comparative rents than we are losing through the right to buy.
In fact, Barking and Dagenham has become the biggest housebuilder in the capital with one in five of all affordable homes being built here. Barking Riverside will host thousands of homes, with its newly opened Overground station and Thames Clipper service, offering quick, car-free journeys into central or south London.
Our new Corporate Plan sets out our vision for the next few years, a turbo-charged mix of performance culture, data-led innovation, and equalities at the heart of everything we do.
We are often first. We were the first council in the country to secure a ban on illegal encampments and fly-tipping and the first to have a borough-wide private landlord licensing scheme that helps protect you if you’re renting. Our Youth Zone was also the first in London.
Thanks to investment in our waste service, we’re now throwing less rubbish into landfill with recycling rates up by more than 11 per cent.
In the last decade we’ve planted over 60,000 trees in our streets and parks and invested millions of pounds in improving our parks, six of which secured the coveted Green Flag Award.
Not only are we a very young borough – one in five of our residents is not yet old enough to sit their GCSEs, we are one of the fastest-changing communities in the country. Although times are tough, the future is bright for the young people of our borough. We cherish our inclusive schools, 9 out of 10 of which are Good or Outstanding, and we are re-shaping our people’s services at the heart of which will sit our family and community hubs.
Our free Summer of Festivals events have been attended by 420,000 residents in the last decade. And we’re proud of the part we played in history, as together, we celebrated the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum jubilee and honoured her life with a local Proclamation event and Civic Memorial Service.
We’re proud of our history and our community. That’s why we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Becontree Estate in 2021, and why we’ll be opening The Women’s Museum in Barking this year, to celebrate the history, stories, and role of women in the borough. It’s also why we regularly fly the flag to mark important days in the calendar including St George’s Day, Black History Month and LGBT+ History Month.
The new Community Diagnostics Centre at Barking Community Hospital is helping local people have CT and MRI scans, ultrasounds, and blood tests much closer to home, reducing waiting times, thanks to £15m funding we secured.
We have not been left untouched by the pandemic or the cost of living crisis. Instead, we have used it as an opportunity – a call to arms – to unite our partners, including our voluntary sector partners, behind a common mission.
We are all familiar with the squeeze on public finances. We are all expected to do more for less. For Barking and Dagenham it’s another reason why we punch above our weight – whether it is tackling the inequalities our residents face, delivering our best services every day, or embracing data to anticipate, not just respond to, demand.