Barking and Dagenham is undergoing change – much of it conflicting. The media regularly reports on it, residents feel it, some fear it, while the Office for National Statistics data and other surveys confirm it.

Even if you have never stepped foot in our borough, you will probably already have a picture of this largely neglected part of east London from the film Made in Dagenham, the Ford plant which dominated industry in this borough from the late 1920s and throughout much of the 20th century or, more recently, from the BNP who briefly managed a foothold on the council, winning 12 out of 51 seats in 2006.