Newham Council is facing criticism after warning that the water supply to a Stratford foodbank will be cut off this week as part of long-running redevelopment plans. Carpenters Café, which supports around 80 people every week, has been told by Populo Living, the housing company wholly owned by the council, that power and water will stop from Wednesday, November 12. The organisation is being moved into four containers on Gibbins Road so the current building can be used as offices for the £1.4bn regeneration of the Carpenters Estate.
Volunteers have been trying to resist the move for a year and had asked for a short delay so they could hold their annual Christmas party on December 2. They say the new container site will not allow users to sit, chat or socialise. Despite these concerns, Newham Council has confirmed the utilities will be disconnected on the planned date. In an email seen by MyLondon, a council employee said the situation has caused serious cost impacts and argued the area around the existing building will be unsafe due to construction work.
Volunteer Folu Fakubin described the decision as heartbreaking. He told MyLondon that poverty in Newham is among the highest in the country and said many residents rely on the café for support and dignity. He added that holding the Christmas party in the new venue would be impossible because no one would be able to sit down. He said the team tries to make people feel welcome by offering tea, coffee and food and that it feels like profit comes before everything else.
The wider regeneration of the Carpenters Estate has been in development for more than twenty years. Residents first raised concerns with Newham Council in 2003 about poor conditions, asbestos and rodent infestations. Since then, residents have gradually been moved out of the estate’s low rise homes and its three tower blocks, Lund Point, Dennison Point and James Riley Point. Fewer than half of the homes were occupied in 2025. The estate currently has 710 properties but is set to expand to 2,300, with about half for affordable rent. In 2021, 73 per cent of residents backed a regeneration plan that later received approval in February.
Populo Living says it will use the Dorian Walk site to run the regeneration project and argues the redevelopment will benefit the community. A spokesperson said the regeneration will deliver 2,300 new and refurbished homes for Newham and that half will be genuinely affordable at social rent. They added that the council supported Carpenters Café by providing free space for several years with the agreement that it would move elsewhere on the estate once redevelopment began. They said an alternative, purpose built site with improved facilities has been available since July and that Populo requires access to the current building to begin the next stage of the project.
