News
London planning news, November 2018
01 Nov 2018
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Headline news |
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On 19 October, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan launched the Homebuilding Capacity Fund. The £10 million fund will support councils across London in building capacity in their planning and housing teams, to help deliver the Mayor’s ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ programme’.
Councils across the capital will be eligible to bid for up to £750,000 of funding each, allowing them to hire additional specialist staff to deliver new home building schemes, or to help developing new masterplans for their area. The Mayor will also consider bids that support the delivery of new social rented, and other affordable tenures for small sites.
Sadiq Khan commented:
‘In the 1970s London councils were supported by central government and built more than 20,000 homes a year. However, these councils built only 2,500 homes over the last seven years, including 700 that were completed last year.’
Furthermore, on 23 October the Mayor announced the allocations of his ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ programme. The £1bn programme will provide support for building 14,724 homes, of which 11,154 are to be based on social rent levels through grant funding. The Programme also offers boroughs the opportunity to ringfence the receipts received from Right to Buy sales, for councils to invest in new homes.
Mayor of London, Mayor boosts councils' homebuilding teams with new £10m fundMayor of London, Mayor agrees £1 billion plan to build 11,000 new council homesMayor of London, Building council homes for Londoners
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Quote of the month |
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We need at least four times the amount of money we currently get from Government for new social and affordable homes, and we need far greater powers to step in and buy land for new council housing. The scale of what I have announced today shows the ambition is there in London to build a new generation of council homes – Ministers now urgently need to step up and go the distance too.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, agreeing plans to build 11,000 new council homes for social rent, 23 October 2018 |
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Autumn Budget 2018: what it means for London
On 29 October, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond delivered the Autumn Budget 2018, making a series of announcements that will also have a significant impact on the development sector within the capital.
Nationally, a further £500m has been secured for the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) over the next five years, now totalling £5.5bn, aimed at supporting local authorities in delivering the infrastructure to ’unlock’ 650,000 new homes. £291m of this has been allocated specifically through the ‘Forward Funding’ route for the expansion of the Docklands Light Railway, which is expected to unlock land in East London for around 18,000 new homes.
The Government has now also confirmed the lifting of borrowing restrictions on the Housing Revenue Account, which in effect has controlled local authority borrowing for house building, and now will enable councils to build around 10,000 additional new homes per year.
The Mayor’s response to the announcements was mixed:
‘I welcome today’s confirmation that the Government is lifting the restrictions on local authorities investing to build new council homes, but this alone will not be enough to fix London’s housing crisis which has been decades in the making.’
The Mayor has called for more funding and additional powers to allow City Hall and local authorities to deliver more housing themselves.
Alongside the various funding announcements, the Government also launched a consultation seeking views on a series of reforms to the planning system. The reforms include proposed changes to permitted development rights (PDRs) and the Use Classes Order, aimed at supporting the resilience of town centres, and the delivery of new homes. The changes to PDRs aim to support greater diversity and footfall on the high street. There is also a new PDR being considered for the redevelopment of office buildings for residential, and another proposed for upwards extensions, which could potentially allow for up to 5 additional storeys to be built above certain existing buildings (and more on freestanding blocks of flats).
However, a number of related potential issues were raised during a previous consultation on upward extensions in London (launched in 2016). Many respondents to that consultation noted that a one-size-fits-all PDR approach would not work in practice; furthermore, given the wide range of factors to properly consider (from design, siting, to local amenity), the process of granting of prior approval risks being almost as onerous as gaining a full planning permission.
HM Treasury, Budget 2018: documentsMayor of London, Reaction to the budget from the Mayor of London, Sadiq KhanMHCLG, Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homesMHCLG, Summary of responses to the technical consultation on implementation of planning changes, consultation on upward extensions and Rural Planning Review Call for Evidence
Updates on the draft London Plan
The London Plan Examination Panel has published its fourth Panel Note, providing details and dates for upcoming technical seminars to take place on 6-7 November.
The purpose of the seminars is to save time during the examination hearing sessions. They will help to ensure that all parties involved in the examination have a clear understanding of the technical basis, including the methodologies underpinning evidence which will be discussed during the Examination in Public (EiP). The technical matters to be discussed during the seminars will relate to: housing; waste; and zero carbon.
Also this month, several new background documents were added to the EiP library, including a ‘Feasibility, Industrial Intensification and Co-location’ study; energy assessment guidance; and a communal heating consumer survey.
The EiP panel is expected to publish the finalised list of matters and participants in the week commencing 5 November, following a 28-day consultation which began on 10 September. The EIP hearings are currently due to commence on 15 January 2019.
EiP Panel, Examination in Public 2018-2019 - Panel Note 4: Technical SeminarsEiP Panel: Provisional timetable 2018-19EiP Panel, EiP libraryMayor of London, Examination in Public for the draft New London Plan
GLA guidance on carbon offset funds
On 6 October, the Greater London Authority (GLA) published guidance to support London’s local planning authorities in establishing carbon offset funds, and to help identify projects which would best utilise the funds raised.
The funds raised will subsidise carbon reduction projects across the capital, as well as emission reductions from existing buildings, where achieving carbon savings has been proven to be more challenging.
The guidance offers directions on: how funds should be administered; the types of offsetting project they apply to; assessing a project’s eligibility; finding suitable projects; and how projects can be compared.
New conservation area designated for the Barbican and Golden Lane estates
The City of London Corporation has backed the creation of a new conservation area that will cover the Barbican and Golden Lane estates, as well as the areas between, under s69 of the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
The proposal was put forward by members of the Barbican and Golden Lane estates’ residents’ associations in May 2017, although planning officers had raised concerns over the extent of the area, and recommended that the boundaries should be amended.
Following a public consultation which ran from December 2017 to February 2018, the City’s Planning and Transport Committee has approved the designation of the conservation area to include several areas which had been excluded from the previous proposal.
The conservation area will now also include the Bridgwater Square, Bridgwater House Barbican Registered Park and Garden, the Barbican Wildlife Garden, and sections of the London Wall Scheduled Ancient Monument west and north of Monkwell Square.
Further 15km of Quietway cycle routes opened
Three new Quietway cycle routes have now opened across London, adding an extra 15km to the network. The routes enable and encourage cyclists to travel along safer, less busy streets and waterways, and through parks.
Sadiq Khan commented:
‘The latest figures show that Quietways are leading to a big increase in cycling with 24,000 bike journeys on Quietway 2 within its first week of opening. It is great to see that Londoners of all ages and abilities are embracing the opportunity to ride safely on backstreets and now many more people will be able to benefit.’
Mayor of London, 15km of new Quietway cycle routes opened across London
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The Lichfields perspective |
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While the draft London Plan EiP library expands to include more up to date and technical evidence, we are still awaiting the Mayor’s ‘Viability Study Update Report’ that was due in October.It has been commissioned as an addendum to the London Plan Viability Study 2017 and will potentially be critical for the final lists of participants and matters that are due to be announced in early November. With the Addendum – but dependent on the extent to which it addresses the criticisms of the 2017 Study - ‘whole plan viability’ and deliverability should become easier to examine next year.
Giorgio Wetzl, Policy Researcher |
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Disclaimer: This publication has been written in general terms and cannot be relied on to cover specific situations. We recommend that you obtain professional advice before acting or refraining from acting on any of the contents of this publication. Lichfields accepts no duty of care or liability for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of any material in this publication. Lichfields is the trading name of Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Limited. Registered in England, no.2778116