Barking & Dagenham LBC

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself. Many councils are seeking to establish a new relationship with local people and local communities. Community involvement and engagement is increasingly important as a way of shaping council thinking, contributing to service design and improvement and to responding to continuing resource pressures. It may also involve direct community involvement in service delivery. This award is intended to showcase the whole range of community involvement.

Becontree Forever is a radical, new programme of art, architecture and infrastructure engaging with over 30,000 residents, 59 schools and 75 arts and community organisations on the world’s biggest council housing estate, the Becontree Estate. Becontree Forever launched in 2021, the centenary of the estate’s construction, to celebrate a ground-breaking past and, crucially, creates the platform, networks and community participation necessary to reimagine the estate’s future – through major investment in housing, retrofitting, transport and infrastructure. The diversity of programming, levels of participation through social/cultural engagement, and the important legacy the programme builds make it a standout community involvement project.