Green light for Morris + Co’s Barking affordable housing scheme

Morris + Company has secured consent for 56 affordable rented homes on a corner site in east London.The Woodward Road scheme, for Barking and Dagenham Council’s regeneration company BeFirst regeneration vehicle, was granted planning permission at a virtual meeting recently.It will create a small row of mews houses ranging from one to three storeys as well as apartment blocks of up to four floors on a largely vacant site within the Becontree Estate in Dagenham. A house and two community halls that stood on the plot were demolished in recent months.The locally listed former Barking Library – currently used as a furniture recycling centre – will be converted into community use and extended.Morris + Company said the ‘quiet and considered’ buildings would ‘create a rich backdrop to the everyday activities of their owners’.Planning officers backed the proposals in a report to councillors.The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry to examine the long-term delivery of social and affordable rented housing. The Shelter charity has warned that more than 3 million new social homes would need to be built in just 20 years to address anticipated need.New housing minister Christopher Pincher this week pledged to analyse whether fewer affordable homes would be built because developers have been allowed to defer certain commitments during the Covid-19 crisis.