Newham Council has announced that it is one of 15 local authorities to receive funding from the Proptech Innovation Fund.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are responsible for the fund, with the latest announcement of awards coming as part of the third round. In total, £3.2 million has been awarded from the fund, with each recipient being granted £100,000. This is the second lot of funding that Newham Council has received from the Proptech Innovation Fund, with the first lot being used to support the adoption of digital citizen engagement tools and services throughout the planning process.
Newham Co-create, the resident engagement and consultation platform that the council utilises, was supported by last year’s allocation of £125,000 and it has helped to shape the vision for a new neighbourhood and town centre in Beckton Riverside. That particular project is the largest regeneration opportunity in the borough, bringing the potential for a further 1,000 new homes, as well as new public realm, public transport improvements, and community facilities.
Submitting a bid for the third round, Newham Council were aiming to improve the usability of the Co-create platform in order to give residents access to “rich map functionalities” whilst also improving collaborative working and enabling planning officers to “combine powerful mapping and spatial analytics technology with cutting-edge engagement tools.”
The council will now spend the next 12 to 18 months working alongside the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to improve the way that consultation data is visualised and processed.
A spokesperson from Newham Council said:
“Ensuring residents are involved in the decision-making process underpins our community wealth-building strategy. We are grateful to be the recipients of further DLUHC funding which will allow us to continue to deliver a full community-led approach for the Beckton Riverside vision to ensure that the regeneration of the site puts people’s health, happiness and well-being at its heart.
“Utilising the enhanced Newham Co-create engagement tool which will be going through some technological improvement, we are looking forward to continuing our participatory practice to further co-produce and develop the community vision, establishing what the social, economic and environmental components of the new neighbourhood might be with the residents’ full involvement.”
Newham Council are also looking to increase innovation in the community through the Newham Sparks Data Campus; You can read more about Newham Sparks in the latest edition of the PSE Magazine here.
