A 10,000-home development unveiled by John Prescott as part of a �6billion Thames Gateway regeneration plan is finally getting off the ground after seven years. The �1.9billion Barking Riverside development, epitomising Labour s 21st century building poli

A 10,000-home development unveiled by John Prescott as part of a �6billion Thames Gateway regeneration plan is finally getting off the ground after seven years.

The �1.9billion Barking Riverside development, epitomising Labour's 21st century building policies with a 41 per cent "affordable housing" quota, will see its first 50 to 100 homes built by Christmas.

The project was derailed in November 2008 when Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson scrapped a �750million Docklands Light Railway extension needed by legal agreement to build more than 4,000 homes.

The Barking housing scheme - part of the Thames Gateway regeneration programme launched by the former deputy PM in 2003 - is behind schedule. The first 1,500 homes promised by 2012 are unlikely to go up before 2013-14.

Developers Barking Riverside Ltd hope the town's first shopping hub - due to be approved this month- and a new bus route, called the East London Transit service, coming to Barking this spring, will entice families to move in.

Managing director Clive Wilding said: "We'll start to build the school, church and shops so we can encourage them to move in there from day one.

"This way, it means we can move forward in a positive way."

A total of 10,800 homes catering for 26,000 people are due to be built over the next 20 to 25 years.

At least a third of the households are to be families and 40 per cent of the 185-hectare site will be open space.

Thames Gateway chiefs gave Barking Riverside Ltd permission to build the first 3,200 homes in August 2009.