A planning application has finally been submitted for the massive £800million regeneration of Poplar’s once-notorious Teviot housing estate.

It follows a referendum by the families five years ago which voted to reboot the neighbourhood from scratch.

The families held a series of design workshops with developers two years later for a masterplan that went to City Hall for funding, which would quadruple the households from 535 to 2,400 — but later trimmed to 1,900.

The referendum gave Poplar Harca housing association the go-ahead to commission architects with a scheme that is now going before Tower Hamlets Council for planning approval to transform the post-war 1950s housing estate.

“This is a significant milestone for the Teviot regeneration,” Poplar Harca’s development director Paul Dooley said. “The families have helped shape the plans to make sure this regeneration reflects the things that matter to them. This is one step closer to more affordable homes.”

The housing organisation has teamed up with Hill Group developers for the outline Teviot masterplan with the first phase for 475 homes to get under way next year if it gets the green light.

The Teviot had become a run-down neighbourhood by the 1990s, notorious for racist attacks.

It was filmed in a TV documentary in 1991 with angry families and included a meeting of the council’s ad-hoc ‘racist incident’ panel. Many families at the time demanded to be rehoused off the estate.

But things calmed down in the following decades, with the housing association turning a corner with ideas to improve the neighbourhood.

Poplar Harca took over the estate, which had originally been built by Poplar Borough Council in 1955, from Tower Hamlets Council in 2007.

The regeneration scheme voted for by the families in 2019 has already put almost £230,000 into a community kitty for projects like a pontoon on the Limehouse Cut canal to open later this year to improve access to water sports.

Nearly half the housing in the first stage is pledged to be 'affordable' and to be ready for families to move in by 2028, with the rest of the scheme completed by 2042.

A new community centre is at the heart of Teviot’s rejuvenation, with priority for green spaces and improvements to Langdon Park.

Extensive landscaping is on the drawing board with “green corridors” for biodiversity and a new public square with shops, commercial space and pedestrian routes to Langdon Park DLR station.

A pedestrian subway under the A12 East India Dock Road is also on the cards.