All about Havering

Havering borough has a long history and an exciting future. Granted a royal liberty 540 years ago, the borough has held a regular street market since 1247.

Today Havering has a population of over 220,000 and is London's third largest borough. It covers an area of 11,227 hectares with almost half of this dedicated to open, green space.

The borough is the country's top performing local education authority with an entirely comprehensive based system. We have a lively cultural scene centred on the Queen's Theatre and the Fairkytes Arts Centre.

Leisure facilities are excellent with three recently renovated leisure centres with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

The borough is also a great place to shop. There are 250,000 regular shoppers in Romford town centre alone.

In terms of growth and improvement, Havering has invested heavily in its town centres – including £400 million for Romford – and ploughed £1 million into parks and open spaces.

With London Riverside and Thames Gateway on our doorstep set to bring more jobs, business and affordable housing, the future looks very exciting.

We have a good understanding of life in Havering.  For example we know that:  

• 70% of Council staff live in the borough
• Havering has the largest proportion of people over 60 in London (23%)
• in 2005, 67% of Havering residents reported that they were satisfied with the area as a place to live
• nearly 80% of residents own their own homes and over 30% have two or more cars 
• there is 76.4% employment (04/05) and only 2.0% of the population are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (Feb 2006) 
• Havering is one of the safest boroughs in London (in the top 5) and crime in most areas has fallen  
• educational attainment is excellent at all key stages, including GCSE and A-level and Havering's schools are rightly recognised as excellent, some even exceptional 

We also have plenty of information about local communities. Did you know that: 

• 5.75% of Rainham and Wennington residents are aged over 75?
• the life expectancy for males in Havering Park is 76.0?
• 1% of Cranham residents were born in Wales?