Whitechapel Development Programme

• Partnership: Tower Hamlets
• Region: London
• Theme: Economic and community development 

Tower Hamlets has the fastest growing population in England, with a 22 per cent rise between 2011 and 2021. It is the most densely populated area in the country, with 15,595 residents per square kilometre. The borough has the youngest median age of any area in London and is exceptionally ethnically diverse, with the largest Bangladeshi population in the country, comprising 34.6 per cent of the population. The Tower Hamlets State of the Borough 2023 report documented that there is a “significant need for support services” for deprived populations in the borough, ranked as the 50th most deprived local authority district (out of 317) in England. 

Tower Hamlets has more jobs than working age residents, unemployment is higher than the national average (4.6 per cent compared with 3.7 per cent) and 16 per cent of residents have no qualifications, underlining that there is a pressing need to upskill local communities (Tower Hamlets Partnership Corporate Strategy and Improvement Team, “State of the Borough 2023”).

The borough’s deprivation also contributes to the health of the community being below the national average (Office for National Statistics, Census 2021) and healthy life expectancy stands at 65 for men and only 58 for women (Tower Hamlets Annual Public Health Report, 2022). This has not improved much over the last ten years and is well below London and England averages. 

NHS Property Services and The Department of Health and Social Care are proposing a 900,000 ft² life sciences cluster in Whitechapel, transforming a series of buildings and empty sites around The Royal London Hospital that have been underused since 2013. The cluster will deliver new healthcare and research facilities, space for industry and new community spaces. The Whitechapel Development, and life sciences work being delivered by the partners in the build up to the cluster being operational will have, and already has had, an impact on reducing health and economic inequalities for the Tower Hamlets population. The development will enable new, innovative research to be undertaken in the borough, provide potentially thousands of new job opportunities and space for industry to be co-located with an internationally renowned hospital and university. 

OPE awarded Tower Hamlets £150,000 for the development of the strategic asset delivery plan, which enabled the partnership to provide detail on currently operational and planned future facilities, as well as estates and life sciences projects being delivered in the Whitechapel area by The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS Property Services, Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, which has now been communicated publicly to support the Whitechapel Development. The plan also identified opportunities for collaboration amongst programme partners. Furthermore, the funding enabled the identification of potential new skills and training opportunities with recommendations to support delivery.

The Tower Hamlets Partnership comprises London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Barts Life Sciences (a partnership between Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London), NHS Property Services and The Department of Health and Social Care. Barts Life Sciences led the programme’s delivery with support and input from partners and the Barts Life Sciences Board whose membership includes key opinion leaders from each partner organisation. 

The work delivered as a result of the OPE programme is directly aligned with partners’ strategic aims, addressing the challenges outlined above with the main aim to improve the lives of Tower Hamlets’ communities through economic growth, expansion of skills and training provision and new employment opportunities. The work has supported Tower Hamlets’ and Barts Life Sciences’ strategic priorities to prepare the borough’s young people for success, help working age residents to thrive (London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets Growth and Economic Development Plan 2018-2023) and enable the workforce of the future (Barts Life Sciences, 2023) and the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS Property Services Whitechapel Road planning application, public consultation, and delivery strategy (Whitechapel Road: A new home for life sciences in London, 2023).

The programme also unlocked the potential for development of new skills initiatives in Tower Hamlets that could extend into the rest of North-East London and inform the development of plans for Barts Health Futures learning hubs, delivering healthcare focused training across East London. The first Futures Hub opened in Newham in 2021, with two more hubs expected to open in 2024. Development of plans for a hub in Tower Hamlets are underway in collaboration with programme partners.

The benefits quantified by the economic analysis and report of the Whitechapel Road Development are as follows:

Construction phase

• Between 2,505 and 2,670 job years created (average of 665 to 830 per year)

• Between £4.4m and £4.7m construction work expenditure (£1.2-£1.5m per year)

Operational phase

• 13,500-14,600 jobs once built out (uplift of 39-50 per cent) compared to current site area

• £21-£23m in worker expenditure (69-87 per cent higher than current site area)

Gross value added

• £1.2-1.3bn GVA per year once built out (2 per cent increase in total Tower Hamlets GVA)

• 55-126 per cent uplift in tax revenues (compared to current levels) equating to £5-7bn 30-year net present value when built out)

• 79-92 per cent uplift in business rates (compared to current levels) equating to £70-74m 30-year NPV when built out

The proposed development could support millions of pounds worth of foreign direct investment in proportion with the increase in workers and businesses at the site depending on the life sciences industries present (Volterra Partners, Whitechapel Development Economics Benefit Statement, 2023).

The OPE funded work has enabled us to have an accurate overview of the assets in public ownership and of the potential economic and employment benefits created through development of current and new assets. This has supported work on community engagement, development of skills and training programmes for local people, and support for planning applications.

Sven Bunn, Life Sciences Programme Director, Barts Health NHS Trust

The programme has unlocked major opportunities for community benefits as well as extensive plans for the regeneration of one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, with the development of the life sciences cluster, supporting the government’s levelling up agenda. Not only will the development offer new research, laboratory, and office facilities to enable the borough to thrive, it will develop modern public realm spaces and community meeting points for locals to enjoy. 

The Whitechapel Development will be co-located with The Royal London Hospital, Queen Mary University of London, and the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Whitechapel, fostering stronger partnerships and will be a sought-after home for industry with research to improve the health outcomes of local communities being at the fore. 

The cluster will prioritise employment and training opportunities for local people and the current OPE work being undertaken by the partnership aims to improve knowledge of and access to opportunities. 

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred shortly after the project commenced. This contributed to significant delays as the project had to be put on hold due to redeployments amongst partners, particularly within the NHS, and other priorities having to take precedence. Once the pressures of the pandemic eased, the partnership reconvened with OPE and reviewed programme outputs, modifying any that were nolonger relevant or had been impacted by the pandemic. Partner and stakeholder engagement occasionally presented a challenge with new ways of working and communicating.

This was managed by regular meetings of the Tower Hamlets Partnership’s Delivery Group and Partnership Board and an updated outputs and delivery plan. It was also a challenge to find appropriate and affordable consultancy support to complete the strategic asset delivery plan, however this was able to be managed in house with support from each partner and developed into a plan by the programme team. 

As a result of this programme’s success, the partnership is taking forward this work in 2024 with additional funding received as part of the OPE Opportunity Development Fund, with plans to identify gaps in current skills provision in Tower Hamlets and how to address these, which will then inform the development of new initiatives and training facilities. Collaboration with other North-East London boroughs will be sought for the delivery of these initiatives, supported by the OPE London Team.