Census results: Greenwich near top in London for population growth
Data from last year’s census has shown that Greenwich borough saw a population increase of 34,543 – or 13.4 per cent – over the past decade.
Greenwich borough was third in London for increases behind Newham and Tower Hamlets. The number of additional people in Tower Hamlets was 56,204. Second was Newham at 43,116.
In percentage terms Greenwich was fifth highest.
Just outside the capital in Dartford there were also substantial increases in residents, the the total up 20 per cent in a decade.
The percentage rise of 13.4 per cent outstrips London as a whole, where the population rose 7.7 per cent adding 626,000 people.
Housing
Greenwich borough has been top five for new housing out of 32 London boroughs over the past decade, though has seen an increasing homelessness population with homeless households doubling from 2018 to 2021.
London councils have warned that numbers of people may be underestimated given London’s highly transient population.
Census results help on planning funding for services within an authority. New housing should also bring revenue locally via Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy.
Population growth is likely to continue in Greenwich as the borough continues to see some of the highest levels of housebuilding in the capital.
In recent weeks I’ve been taking many more photos of various development sites capturing changes, though have been so busy there’s been little chance to upload them.
What may impact housing levels is sky-high inflation on materials and an economic downturn.
Even then, the population is hardly likely to fall, but it’ll be harder to catch and monitor as people in house and flat shares continue to move into more converted former family homes.
Stable housing makes it far easier to capture population changes and plan for services accordingly, and that’s something that isn’t in evidence for many.
You can view data on the census at the ONS website here.
Thank you for another great article John. The population in Greenwich Borough will continuing increasing as new developments are completed.
This also shows the need to increase amenities, transport infrastructure,, health services drainage and sewage etc across the Borough to cope with the ever increasing demand..
More schools are also needed so more school places can be created for children to attend school.. it can be very hard to get a child placed in a local school near to home.
Schools are one of the services in better shape. For my sins I’ve read a few in-depth reports on school spaces and education provision and while there may be issues in some select areas, generally there is a surplus of spaces and billions have been spent on new schools and buildings the borough over over the past 10+ years.
The same can’t be said for other services. Getting a GP appointment is extremely difficult for example. This is almost entirely down to central government.
However many other services and the towns parks and streets could be better if Greenwich get their act together and obtain further income from housing developers via CIL. That also in a small way goes towards health, as they regularly allocate less Section 106 than the NHS request.
Thank you John for confirming this for us.