L&Q Group Starts Construction on 651 Homes at Barking Riverside in Largest In-House Real Estate Development to Date

LONDON — L&Q Group Group has broken ground on a 651-home real estate development at Barking Riverside in east London, the housing association announced, marking the largest project undertaken by its In-House Build team to date. More than half of the homes will be delivered at sub-market tenures, supported by over £62 million in funding from the Greater London Authority.

Colleagues from L&Q gathered on Tuesday, May 26, for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of works on the new residential blocks. They were joined by Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Residential Development; London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council Leader Cllr Dominic Twomey; and Barking Riverside Cllr Marion Hull.

Project Details: What the Homes Will Comprise

The homes will comprise three distinct tenure types across the 651-unit scheme. According to L&Q, the development will include 181 Affordable Rent homes, 173 London Living Rent homes, and 297 homes for outright sale. That breakdown places 354 units — approximately 54% of the total — in sub-market affordable categories, with the remaining 46% designated for private sale.

The first homes are expected to be completed in January 2028, with final completion targeted for June 2030. The scheme is positioned to strengthen connections between the Barking Riverside Overground station and the Thames Clipper pier, and is designed to support what L&Q describes as a thriving and sustainable community through a range of on-site amenities.

The development represents L&Q's third major scheme at Barking Riverside to be delivered by its In-House Build team, which brings main-contracting capabilities inside the group. Describing it as the team's largest project to date signals L&Q's intent to scale its self-delivery model on complex, multi-year regeneration sites.

Barking Riverside: A Major East London Regeneration

The groundbreaking marks another milestone in the broader transformation of Barking Riverside, one of Europe's largest residential-led regeneration schemes. The 443-acre site sits on a brownfield location formerly occupied by the historic 1920s Barking Power Station on the north bank of the Thames, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

The masterplan, which targets up to 10,800 homes in total, is led by Barking Riverside Limited (BRL), a joint venture between L&Q and the Mayor of London. The site is already home to more than 6,000 residents and includes five schools — one of which holds an Ofsted Outstanding rating — two community hubs, cycling and walking routes, open spaces, and waste management facilities.

The latest L&Q phase has been made possible through partnerships with BRL, the GLA, and Homes England. The GLA's investment of more than £62 million supports the delivery of the affordable housing component within this phase, aligning with the GLA's broader Affordable Homes Programme.

Executives and Officials Weigh In

David Lewis, Executive Group Director for Property and Investment at L&Q, said the groundbreaking was "a hugely significant moment" for the organization and its In-House Build team.

"As our largest in-house delivered development to date, this project demonstrates our long-term commitment to building high-quality homes and investing in thriving communities across London," Lewis said. "Barking Riverside is becoming one of the capital's most exciting new neighbourhoods, and we're proud to be delivering over 650 new homes here in the next few years, including a substantial proportion of genuinely affordable housing."

Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Residential Development, said it was fantastic to see the start of construction on the project. "I am delighted that more than half of these new homes will be affordable, which will provide much needed, high-quality new housing in the borough," Copley said. "This is good news for local families and the wider community as we continue to work to build a fairer, more prosperous London for everyone."

Leigh Johnson, Managing Director at Barking Riverside Limited, framed the groundbreaking in terms of BRL's core mandate. "Today's groundbreaking reflects exactly what Barking Riverside Limited was set up to do — to create development-ready neighbourhoods where our partners can get on and deliver great homes at scale," Johnson said. "As master developer, we're de-risking land, investing in a range of social and technical infrastructure, and making sure the foundations for long-term growth are firmly in place."

Market Context and Strategic Implications

The Barking Riverside scheme sits within a borough that London's own planning framework identifies as a strategic growth location. Barking and Dagenham has been among the more active outer-London boroughs on regeneration, with Barking Riverside serving as a flagship housing growth area alongside other major sites. The arrival of the Barking Riverside Overground station in 2022 and the opening of the Thames Clipper pier have strengthened the site's transport connectivity, factors that L&Q's latest phase is explicitly designed to leverage.

For L&Q, the project carries additional strategic weight. The housing association, which manages approximately 115,000 to 120,000 homes, has in recent years moderated its development pipeline to prioritize financial resilience and existing stock quality. Against that backdrop, committing to its largest-ever in-house project underscores the organization's continued investment in large-scale, infrastructure-anchored regeneration rather than speculative volume growth.

The use of London Living Rent — a tenure product designed to help renters save toward homeownership — alongside Affordable Rent units reflects the dual pressures facing outer-east London: persistent affordability constraints relative to local incomes and ongoing demand from households seeking alternatives to higher-cost inner-London submarkets. The £62 million GLA grant represents a substantial single-site allocation under the Mayor's affordable housing program, and the project is likely to serve as a reference case for public-private delivery at scale within the Thames Estuary corridor.

Sources

L&Q Group — Construction starts on 651 new homes in Barking Riverside