Millennium Mills work begins as part of Silvertown regeneration

The Millennium Mills in the Royal Docks has lain derelict for years

Builders have moved in for the first phase of the £3.5bn Silvertown regeneration scheme in east London.

The iconic Millennium Mills buildings will be part of the revamp, having lain derelict for years.

Thousands of new homes and jobs will be created in Newham, which is one of London's poorest boroughs.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan heralded the start of the work in the Royal Docks area, just a few months after moving City Hall to the site.

Regeneration was overdue, said resident Debra Lloyd-Bangay

An £80m grant from City Hall will go towards building 1,500 new homes, 720 of which will be "genuinely affordable", Mr Khan has pledged.

More than 6,000 new homes are planned for the next decade, while 10,000 new jobs are expected to be created.

Residents welcomed the new development, especially the housing, which has come after years of neglect.

Debra Lloyd-Bangay, who lives in the area, said: "When this did go into decline it was a terrible area to live, it was just barren.

"There is a lot of overcrowding of families and things like that so it would be good to get that sorted."

Analysis

By BBC London political editor Tim Donovan

Millennium Mills has been empty for more than 40 years. There have been lots of aspirations, but nobody yet has matched a vision with a plan and finances to make regeneration happen.

Instead it’s been a pretty decent cinematic backdrop - appearing in films like Spiderman and Paddington 2  - and the hit tv series Ashes to Ashes.

A visit by London’s mayor Sadiq Khan indicates there is now a meaningful plan to start work on transforming an area which will be called Silvertown Quays.

Key this time is that as well as the mayor and Newham Council being on board, there’s more than £200m coming from the government to build a new bridge across the dock to link the area up with the Elizabeth Line station at Custom House.

Optimists suggest it could eventually be the centrepiece of a Royal Docks redevelopment to rival Canary Wharf upstream.

All that is confirmed so far is the first phase which will turn the derelict structure - also know locally as the Spillers building - into a workspace, with shops and restaurants and room for the creative arts pledged.

Around it will be built 1,500 homes of which half will be "affordable" - six in 10 of those homes for rent at "London affordable rent" - what the mayor says is close to former council rent levels.

What’s made this more palatable for the developers Lendlease is that the mayor uses the housing money provided by government to subsidise affordability.

Both his predecessors Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson launched visions for the Royal docks. Progress is slow.

The hope is Silvertown Quays will be built out within a decade - with more than 6,000 homes.

What local people seem to want as well as affordability is a genuinely mixed development that might recreate a sense of community which was lost when the docks closed.

Let’s see how it all goes.

The first homes in the Silvertown scheme are expected to be ready in 2024. Once the project is completed in the early 2030s, it will serve 13,000 residents.

Another resident, Chantelle Thomas, stressed the need for the new housing to be "actually affordable" and within reach of families living there.

She said: "It's great having all these developments coming up.

"I've got kids so they will be able to work in this area when they're a bit older, but if they then need to move out of the area to live, that's a bit counterproductive."

Chantelle Thomas said the housing must be "actually affordable" so families do not have to move out the area

The Millennium Mills building will also be restored to create new business workspace, as well as an area for cultural and community events. 

Built in 1933, the building is an east London landmark which has appeared in many film and TV shows after closing in 1981.

Several failed attempts to bring the building back into use have been made over the last 40 years, for example as an aquarium or luxury flats.

Mr Khan said he was pleased to finally see solutions to a location that has "vexed planners and politicians alike" for four decades.

He said: "The regeneration of this area is long overdue and I’m excited by the plans for Silvertown which respect its past whilst embracing east London’s vibrant and creative future."