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While The Dome, On The Greenwich Peninsula, Failed To Meet Expectations With ...

While the Dome, on the Greenwich peninsula, failed to meet expectations with visitor numbers, and has been largely unused since 2001, it now appears likely to be converted to a large casino (Mathiason et al 2006). While this may, on the one hand, generate many jobs and bring visitors to the area, it may also contribute to social problems caused by gambling and take money away from other areas of the local economy.
Future
Two major projects look set to continue the regeneration of the wider area. The Thames Gateway, stretching from Tower Bridge along the Thames to Thurrock in Essex and Bexley in Kent, is earmarked to fulfil a substantial element of South East England's housing shortage. House prices in the area are already rising as a result (Butler 2006). While a high level of supply might be expected to affect price, there are clearly other factors in play. Perhaps more significantly, this demonstrates that the property market can impact heavily on regeneration which is not property-market-led.
The 2012 Olympic Games is envisaged as a catalyst for the regeneration of east London, cross-city transport improvements, more training and job opportunities for Londoners and, of course, opportunities for a vast array of London's businesses (www.london2012.org/en/gettinginvolved/nation+and+regions/london/Vision.htm).
Summary of Change
Sums invested
By the end of the 1990s, public funding of £1.74bn had been provided for Docklands regeneration. while private investment totalled £6.23bn (Foster 1999: 342). Additionally, the cost of incentives to encourage private investment has been estimated at around £1bn (see 3.1.2). This totals approximately £9bn, with much of this at the prices of the day (i.e. lower in 1981 than today).
Leverage was therefore 1 : 3.6 without considering the cost of incentives, and 1 : 2.3 if incentives are considered, considerably lower than the 1:10 envisaged (see 3.1).
In this context, the £6bn of government funding allocated to the Thames Gateway development, seems a relatively small sum. It is intended to result in the building of at least 120,000 homes (Stewart 2005) compared with 24,000 in Docklands between 1982 and 1998. The Thames Gateway development is expected to generate 180,000 jobs while the LDDC-led redevelopment of Docklands generated a net increase of 60,000 jobs in the area between 1985 and 1998 (www.lddc-history.org.uk/employment/index.html), although many of these had existed previously elsewhere, or provided employment for individuals from outside the area.


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