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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Sam Barker

Famous 'Made in Dagenham' Ford factory site set to be transformed into 3,500 homes

A famous car factory which saw equal pay strikes immortalised in the cult film Made in Dagenham is being turned into a 3,500-home village.

The Ford factory in Dagenham, east London, saw a 1968 strike by female workers that led to the UK's first equal pay laws.

Now the factory site is being turned into a village with 3,500 homes by housing provider Peabody.

The 45-acre factory was knocked down in 2013, and construction will now begin on homes, shops, offices and a secondary school.

There will also be a five-acre park at the centre of the new village, which will be called Dagenham Green.

Around 1,550 of the homes will be affordable for renters or sold under the shared ownership scheme.

The famous factory in its heyday (Press Association)

Peabody also wants to include corner shops, a health centre, places to eat and drink, a gym and possibly a nursery.

The local council planning committee signed off the plans yesterday, the BBC reports.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) will also mull over the plans.

Peabody chief executive Brendan Sarfield said: "Together we have a fantastic opportunity to bring the empty site back into use as part of the exciting new Dagenham Docks neighbourhood.

"Starting with people, we can help bring the place to life, linking in with residents from the Becontree estate and elsewhere to make it a great Peabody neighbourhood for the future."

London mayor Sadiq Khan called plans for the development "one of the most exciting areas of regeneration in London, with this former powerhouse of East End industry set to be comprehensively transformed over the next decade".

The factory originally on the site made nearly 11million Ford cars between 1931 and 2013.

But in popular culture the Dagenham Ford factory is best known for a key strike that led to women getting more pay.

Industrial action started in 1968 because female sewing machinists began getting paid 15% less than men for doing similar work.

The female workers walked out, followed by colleagues at Ford's plant in Halewood, near Liverpool.

The strike led to Ford running out of car seat covers, completely halting UK production.

The incident led directly to women workers at the factory getting the same pay rate as men.

It also led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970, which said women should not be paid less than men for doing the same work.

The strikes were later turned into the 2010 film Made in Dagenham , featuring Rosamund Pike and Bob Hoskins.

Peabody was set up 160 years ago and now oversees 67,000 homes with 155,000 residents.

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