What shapes prosperity for people in Canning Town?

This section shares Prosperity Index data and stories about Canning Town. It describes what people living in Canning Town say about prosperity and living a good life in east London, and how people are experiencing changes linked to regeneration.  The perspective and stories shared here are based on interviews and group discussions with people living and working in Canning Town. The interviews were carried out by citizen scientists in 2017.  

Canning Town residents focused on the following themes when talking about prosperity and opportunities to live well: prosperity and income, employment and jobs, in-work poverty, education, and a sense of community.

Most interviewees spoke negatively about employment, housing and change in the neighbourhood. They pointed to the shortage of job opportunities, the diminishing availability of social housing, and the high prices of new housing that is built in the area. 

Read more about the area and see the Prosperity Index data for Canning Town.

Miriam: What constitutes the good life around the neighbourhood? 
Frank: I think that there’s a good proportion of people that cannot live, that cannot see beyond the end of the week. So they’re always worried about money. 
Tony: Ok, what does the idea of a good life mean to you? 
Brian: Probably just having enough money that you don’t have to worry about bills, and you can do the things you enjoy doing…I love my sport: rugby, cricket, football. Going out socially with friends. That’s basically the things I enjoy. 
Tony: What does a good life mean to you? So, when we think about good life, what brings to mind? 
Jay: A life where you’re financially secure. 
Kara: Happiness. 
Tony. So what makes happiness? 
Kara: If I have a good job and it pays a lot, yeah. 
Tony: […] What does a good life mean to you?   
Jay: Well, a good life to me is having good stuff to eat, an adequate amount of money, not a lot, just enough that if I’m sick I can go to the doctor, get medication, you know, just enough. 

in-work poverty 

In-work poverty was experienced by many people involved in the research. Yasmin, who had a number of jobs, explained the difficulties she faced meeting the high rents for temporary accommodation. Here she is talking to Miriam, a citizen scientists, and another resident Betty:

Miriam: and you work here, and where else…? 
Yasmin: This is one of the contracts I work on, and I work on another two. We have four all together. And last year we employed somebody off benefits to take on one of the contacts.

Betty: But life isn’t easier for you.
Yasmin: No, it’s not. I’m struggling more since I started working […] because I live in temporary accommodation, I’ve been in temporary accommodation for the last 10 or 11 years, maybe a bit longer. And I have all my children apart from one living at home, they all work, including my youngest who’s just left school now. So, I have four boys at home, and because they all work the council take their wages into consideration before tax so now I struggle […] because I’m having to pay more rent in temporary accommodation. 

Betty: Which is probably treble… sorry. How much rent…? 
Yasmin: My rent for the property is £295 per week. 

Education

People in Canning town had mixed feelings about opportunities to get a good education. Some people talked about local schools having a long history of poor performance - like the comments from Ben below - although recognising that recent significant improvements have been made. The Prosperity Index household survey found that levels of educational attainment in the area are very low, with 34% of residents having no qualifications compared to only 8% for London as a whole.   

Ben: I think the only thing […] that has improved in this area in the last 15 years has been education. If you had spoken to me 15 years ago I could not have possibly allowed my daughter to go to any of these primary schools […] Probably they had 90% of the kids leaving who could not read at the age of 10 [...] and they have been completely turned round, completely turned round… 
Miriam: and what improved the education round here? 
Ben: I think there was a change in the Council’s commitment to education. 

sense of community 

People talked often about the importance of community. The range of perspectives expressed show that ‘a sense of community’ is a complicated issue, with different people having different ideas of what community means. 

Some people felt that a sense of community is a thing of the past. These people associated 'community' with Canning Town's white working class population, historically employed in the Docklands, and felt that immigration had diversified local communities. As one man explains: 

"there is an established community here of working-class people, which is slowly getting broken down…When council housing was […originally] built it went to people on the list who were all white. Because it was a white society, and that’s how it was [bangs on the table for emphasis]. They had long-term rights, and their children had rights too at the time […]. But as it dies out, ethnic minorities [are] coming in, Africans, Europeans, various people’s coming in […]. 

At the same time she also said that, in the past, the area has received large amounts of funding for community initiatives but this has failed to make a lasting positive change, compared to other parts of Newham:   

Bhumi: it’s the A13, the main thoroughfare. And so, the communities around it, this side, the south side of the A13, there has never been a vibrant voluntary sector. […] It’s a higher density of groups based north of the A13, and of them some of them would say that they are borough-wide, but they didn’t appear to know that this area existed. This area has had huge amounts of government funding in its time: single regeneration budget 2, 4 and 6, […] at one stage we had single regeneration budget, we were a health zone, we were an education zone but actually it made no difference at all […] Money isn’t the answer in this area. And so it didn’t matter how much money you put into this area, unless you are actually affecting change, the same shit is still here I’m afraid." 

Other interviewees spoke about a sense of community as a way of conducting themselves in everyday life and treating others with respect, not as membership of ethnic group with historical roots in the area, or as something that is built through institutions. This view was taken by J. – a recent arrival to the UK who had lived in Canning Town for about a year: 

Tony: So do you feel part of this local community? 
Jaden: Somewhat I do, yeah. I feel. 
Tony: Ok, I need to follow that up then. What makes a community? What makes you not part of it or part of it? 
Jaden: Well a community is made up of the people […] so if you walk down the street like [I did] this morning, I was going to the library and I saw this old lady trying to cross the road. I literally helped her across and she was like “thank you, thank you” […]. Normally, she said, people from here don’t help me at all and they leave me to fight across the street. I said but I’m not from here, I’m from the Caribbean. Oh, that’s why, she said. “God bless you.” That’s a community thing people should be doing as well. 
Tony: So for you a community is offering to help. 
Jaden: Assistance. Helping people as well. If a person comes to you it’s your job to see if they need it or don’t need it […].   

Other people saw local projects or initiatives as the driver of community cohesion, however, and felt a sense of community is under threat because of lack of a strong voluntary sector. Bhumi, who worked at a local community hub, explains (below):

This feeling of community recognises that many people in Canning Town could be described as 'new arrivals'. Claims to belonging to the community cannot be based on length of residence, and so people establish themselves as community members by means of actions that make a positive contribution to the neighbourhood.