What’s happening at the Carpenters Estate?
Written June 2026
Notes from Populo Living CPD (and then cross-referenced to the website and articles)
If, like me, you use Stratford to complete both GCSE and A-Level fieldwork, you will have noticed that regeneration of the Carpenters Estate is finally underway. Now, given the long timescale of the regeneration project, I think can see out the current specifications with our current approach and resources but I do imagine we’ll start to get more student (and staff) questions about what’s happening and what the future of the estate is.
With that in mind, I decided to type up my notes from the excellent teacher CPD session that Populo Living kindly ran back in March 2026 and share them here, in case useful for your own subject knowledge. I will be having them to hand for my own visits to Stratford this summer!
If you haven’t already, it’s well worth visiting this website for more detail information about the past, present, and future of the estate. You may also be interested in this blog about using Stratford for urban fieldwork and this blog about teaching about the Carpenters Estate as part of Edexcel A-Level Regenerating Places.
My notes from the CPD event:
Populo Living = Focused on affordable homes
‘Commercial for social good’
Private company with 1 owner > Newham Council
So, they don’t take profit
They build and then manage the properties too
Land stays owned by the council.
2300 homes on the Carpenters Estate.
Regeneration project = 8 phrases that will take around 15 years
40% of existing buildings are staying- partly because of sustainability and partly because of the shared memories in the area and the value of this- the sense of place.
Local residents wanted to keep the ‘bowl’ feel of the estate with low density in the middle and high-rise buildings around the edge.
Conversations about the regeneration of the estate have been ongoing for around 20 years with various plans of what to do with it
There were around 710 households on the estate- some have now moved out.
350 households living on the estate now.
All will be rehoused
But, Populo only want to move people once- so, people will be moved once into the new housing on the estate
The tower blocks will be mostly affordable housing- to mean that people can get in there sooner (and so fulfil the goal of people only moving once).
Private homes will come later.
Whilst changes to the estate occur, ‘meanwhile’ projects are happening.
E.G. the community centre has been built to ensure Populo’s presence on the estate- make sure local people have an area to go to share thoughts and engage with the process
More info on meanwhile projects: Carpenters Estate – Populo's role
The project worked (i.e. this plan got through) because residents reached a point where they knew change was need.
And, importantly, when working with Populo, they got to share their own opinion: wanted a mix of housing, not just high-rises.
Populo use a ‘TOMs’ framework to measure social value.
How is social value being delivered?
TOMs framework: Social Value TOM System™ | Social Value Portal
Jointed up thinking throughout: for example, working to rebuild the school and making the estate feel more dense- freeing up the land to build more housing to rent- which brings in income and makes it cost neutral.