Neighbourhoods made by everyone, for everyone – that is the aim of a new £6.4 million initiative set to launch in Barking and Dagenham later this year.

Every One Every Day, formed out of a partnership between Participatory City and Barking and Dagenham Council, will be the largest participatory project of its kind in the country.

The ambitious scheme will work with 25,000 residents across the borough to create over 250 neighbourhood-led projects and form more than 100 new businesses over the next five years.

Updated: 27 June

Over the weekend, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced a 100% failure rate of fire safety checks carried out on samples of cladding.

Councils from across the country have been asked to submit cladding they suspect is “possible Aluminium Composite Material” – the type of material found to have been used on Grenfell Tower – to be tested.

Barking and Dagenham residents came together on 6 June to join the rest of the nation in a one minute silence to remember the victims of the terror attack on Saturday 3 June.

Around 350 people attended and around 300 signatories have signed a community pledge so far, which has been set up by the council to symbolise solidarity and community unity in the face of the terror attacks.

Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, Councillor Darren Rodwell, said:

More residents will be supplied with affordable heating and hot water by early next year thanks to locally powered green energy delivered by B&D Energy Ltd.

Thanks to a successful grant application the council owned company has today secured £1.1m from the Government which will be matched by £1.5m of Council funding to deliver low carbon energy to residents in 230 homes in new housing developments in Dagenham.

A series of raids by Barking and Dagenham Council have revealed dozens of tenants living in squalid, cramped and dangerous conditions paying thousands of pounds a month to rip-off landlords.