Canning Town | Site Description
Canning Town is located in the south of the Borough of Newham: the same borough as East Village and Forest Gate. Canning Town differs immensely from East Village in terms of its history, built environment and demographic. It had been a site of poorly-serviced settlements for Dock workers, but 85% of housing stock was destroyed in WW2. Post-war council housing schemes now survive, and characterise much of the built environment. The contrast between the two sites indicates the diversity of living environments that are contained in a single borough.
The Canning Town South Ward (where the research site is located) is in the second most deprived decile in the UK. In-work poverty, poor health and low education outcomes are particularly pertinent challenges. Canning Town is diverse in terms of ethnicity and age: although 20-40 year olds are the largest age group, there are still a significant number of young children, adolescents, and adults over 40 years old.
In response to Canning Town’s deprivation, a £3.7 billion regeneration project was announced in 2000, and is underway in Canning Town and neighbouring Custom House. The regeneration project promises to deliver 10,000 new homes (with 35% provided at ‘affordable’ rates), a new town centre with improved local facilities, and improved local and trans-London transport connections.
Further information
How prosperous do people in Canning Town feel?
In 2017, households in the Canning Town research site were surveyed to find out how prosperous people feel. The survey asked questions about the factors that people said were important to their prosperity in the 2015 research. The survey asked questions about livelihood security, housing and work, the opportunities and public services people have access to, how they feel about the future and their local community, inclusion, fairness and whether they feel they have a voice in local decision-making.
The survey results and some secondary data were used to create the UK’s first citizen-led Prosperity Index, which compares the levels of prosperity in Canning Town to the average for Greater London. Below is the Headline Indicator Scorecard for Canning Town which shows the results using a 10 point scale where 1 is low (red), 5 is the Greater London average (yellow) and 10 is high (green). For example, an Index score of 1.7 for Real Household Disposable Income means the Canning Town research site has a higher than average percentage of households reporting very low levels of monthly disposable income after taxes, housing costs, utility bills and debt repayments have been made. Whereas an Index score of 6.6 for Work-Life Balance means that a higher percentage of people in the Canning Town research site are working less than 49 hours per week and are satisfied with their work-life balance than the Greater London average.
Information about the measures in the Prosperity Index and how it is compiled can be found here.
Canning Town Prosperity Index Scorecard based on household survey in 2017. Institute for Global Prosperity, published 2019.