Planning matters

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has published ‘A City for all Londoners’, which marks the first step towards the creation of a new London Plan, as well as new strategies for wide-ranging policy areas that will be published in draft next year. ‘Interim’ supplementary planning guidance (SPG) on maximising affordable housing provision will be published later in 2016, at some point after the Government’s Housing White Paper that is due in late November (most likely on the 23rd, the date of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement).

‘A City for all Londoners’ is referred to by Khan as ‘a statement of my ambition as mayor’ and is out for consultation until 11 December 2016. With the Mayor advising that the publication should be read as a whole, rather than as separate themed sections on housing, the economy or environment etc., Khan’s stated intention is to build on his election manifesto and the announcements he has made since May. The consultation document therefore sets the direction of travel for Mayoral policies, focusing more on proposed lines of intervention and strategies, rather than setting specific targets and goals.

‘A City for all Londoners’ is split into five parts, with the main highlights being as follows:

• It does not set an annual target for new homes, although it states that experts have said that the need is to build ‘at least 50,000 homes every year between now and 2041’ (page 19);
• The intention to protect Green Belt and other designated green spaces is reiterated early in the document (page 19);
• It pledges to protect the job-creating role of central London, by resisting ‘moves to convert offices to housing unless this can be justified’ (page 21) and protecting existing workspace and identifying new workspace areas (page 53);
• Transport development and infrastructure are recognised as crucial (including river crossings in the east) in delivering development in non-central locations, and to creating new opportunities for homes and jobs (page 21);
• There should be more development in town centres, particularly those with good links to central London; similarly, the potential of areas around stations as locations for ‘significant and much higher density housing development’ will be explored (page 23);
• Hotel provision will be increased in both Opportunity Areas and town centres in Outer London, where good transport links are available. The document sets a target for ‘at least additional 40,000 hotel rooms in London’ by 2036 (page 53);
• It aims to agree ‘joint infrastructure investment corridors […] that stretch out beyond London’s borders’, by working with neighbouring authorities in the wider South East (page 25);
• Ways to deliver more infrastructure will be explored, by focusing on mechanisms ‘to ensure that London as a whole benefits from the future uplift in land prices following development’ (page 47);
• It set the goal for a zero-carbon London by 2050 (pages 27 and 61);
• It states the intention to move to ‘all new buildings in London to be air quality positive’ - they will have to ‘contribute actively to progressive reduction in the total amount of London’s emissions and associated exposure’ (page 59);
• It reaffirms the intention to explore the ‘agent-of-change’ principle, whereby developers would bear the costs for soundproofing new homes (details are expected in proposed Night-Time Economy SPG, due ‘in the coming months’) (page 27);
• The affordable housing target is still set at 50%, in terms of ‘working towards’ it (page 39); interestingly, starter homes are not mentioned in the document at all - ‘low-cost rented, the London Living Rent and shared ownership’ are the housing types the Mayor aims to offer (page 9);
• It confirms that an ‘interim’ SPG on maximising affordable housing provision will be published later in 2016 (page 91);
• It states that the Mayor is currently ‘reviewing plans for the two Mayoral Development Corporations’ (London Legacy and Old Oak and Park Royal), ‘to make sure they deliver as many new and affordable homes as possible’ (page 41);
• It confirms the Mayor is focusing on attracting finance into ‘new high-quality build-to-rent developments’ (page 41); and
• In several parts of the document the Mayor reiterates his call for the devolution of powers from central government (on fiscal policies, railway services, etc.).

The Mayor is making it clear that in forming the new Plan and his strategies for key policy areas, he is receptive to others’ ideas. He wants to be made fully aware of stakeholder and public needs as early as possible therefore invitation-only stakeholder workshops, plus community focus groups and online discussions are beginning to be arranged. No details have been published yet however.