The draft New London Plan is close to the end of its progress towards final adoption. As Just Space and its member groups get to grips with the near-final version we gather here some responses from members. More are welcome.
As at New Year 2020 the situation is this: On 9 December the Mayor issued the version of the Plan he ‘intends to publish’, incorporating changes recommended by the Panel of Inspectors. At the same time he published his responses to the Panel, including his reasons for rejecting some of their recommendations. All these documents can be found at https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/new-london-plan/intend-publish-london-plan-2019. The Secretary of State has until 20th January to direct any changes. After that the London Assembly gets to consider it but can only accept it or, by a 2/3 majority, reject it entirely. Then it becomes the adopted Plan.
UPDATE 23 January: The London Assembly Planning Committee held a Q&A with London Plan staff today and the webcast is available https://www.london.gov.uk/planning-committee-2020-01-23. We also learn (via Kate Gordon, FoE) that the GLA expects to have the Secretary of State’s response on 17 February.
What were we looking for? After 2 years of work, Just Space and its member groups submitted our own Community-led plan for London and this 10-point summary in 2017:
The Mayor should…
- …put in place a programme of effective, meaningful and continuous engagement – underpinned by the principles of inclusion and fairness – that enables all Londoners to work with the Mayor and officers in a spirit of co-operation and in co-production of the new London Plan and all the Mayor’s Strategies. Deep changes are needed in the governance of the city and this is a starting point.
- …develop a London Housing Bill to give the Mayor devolved powers to bring housing reform in London, especially city wide rent control for private renters, regulation of landlords through mandatory landlord licensing across London and meeting the challenge of providing not-for-profit, social rented housing. The term “affordable housing” should be removed in any documents produced by the Mayor.
- …care for existing homes, neighbourhoods and communities and respond to high levels of fuel poverty by scaling up refurbishment and retrofit programmes and protecting existing council housing and housing association estates.
- …foster a more localised, fair and green economy that acknowledges the diversity found in high streets and industrial estates such as low cost workspace, light industrial units, warehouses, studios and sheds, as a strength and a driver of the city’s future well being.
- …promote affordable and accessible public transport, supported by revenue from road user charging to tackle congestion and pollution.
- …care for the environment by making London a Blue Green City, placing value on the connection and interaction between London’s blue and green assets such as green spaces, waterways, nature and air quality.
- …require Social Impact Assessments to be undertaken to measure and calculate the impact of development proposals on existing residents and businesses in neighbourhoods being considered for substantial change.
- …support Lifetime Neighbourhoods, scaled up to Lifetime Suburbs in Outer London, providing key amenities and job opportunities locally, thus reducing the need for costly and polluting travel.
- …place a moratorium on any more Opportunity Areas, bringing forward an evaluation and review of successes and failures so far and a new model of regeneration that prioritises social sustainability and social infrastructure and embeds more democratic and participatory mechanisms into the regeneration of areas.
- …develop new indicators for measuring the success of the city, such as the % of the labour force that has a secure job that pays at least the London Living Wage, and measuring life satisfaction using wellbeing surveys.
and then we made detailed comments on the consultation draft Plan, followed by individual submissions on most of the issues considered by the Panel of inspectors at the Examination in Public. We estimate that 83 community groups took part and spoke at the hearings of the Examination in Public, some directly invited and others using the Just Space ‘hot seat’.
Here are comments and assessments contributed by members/ groups:
Friends of the Earth comments on the whole Plan from an environmental point of view FoE on London Plan panel
London Forum provisional comment, likely to be superseded soon London Plan 2019 Examiners Report – Peter Eversden
Just Space Economy and Planning group on industrial and workplace issues JSEP Industry workspace comments
Natasha Sivanandan (Haringey Community Campaign) writes a short comment on Equalities & call for challenges to the Mayor at the next Question Time on 23 January
[N Sivanandan A Dream for Developers], adding:
I think the following are 2 things all in JS can agree on because (a) we said so at the EIP on behalf of JS and (b) the Inspectors have rejected everything we said on these 2 issues. They are:
1. The Inspectors have ignored all our submissions on the Mayor’s failure to consult properly and particularly with groups with “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act 2010, and they have failed to have regard to the leading Supreme Court caselaw on consultation that we cited in our evidence to the EIP.
2. The Inspectors have failed to properly consider or respond to our detailed evidence and legal submissions on the Mayor’s failure to have regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 and as a conequence the London Plan is unlawful and lets down some of its most vulnerable citizens.
Meenakshi Sharma (Ilford NOISE) on Equalities aspects (and a more detailed version may follow) Equalities and IIA Ilford Noise
Michael Edwards on positive gains in the Plan Edwards positive gains
John Cox (GUA and Brent Cross Alliance) on Transport Transport comments John Cox
Paul Burnham (Haringey DCF) on housing highlights Housing highlights in NLP Burnham
Jennifer Robinson on Viability & Opportunity Areas Robinson Comments on Panel
Assessments by other people or organisations:
Duncan Bowie article in October 2019 Town and Country Planning, ending with comments on the Panel Report Bowie TCP article on London Plan.Oct 2019
Blog post from Lichfields
Urban Design London, report on discussion – mainly among Borough officers, clearly – on design aspects of the Panel report, mainly Small Sites. Download contains 5 copies of this picture
Consultants Barton Willmore are blogging, initially on the aggregate housing targets & failure to “meet housing needs” with GL. http://bartonwillmore.co.uk/Knowledge/News/2019/What-next-for-the-London-Plan
Similarly, in a very brief note, consultant Iceni Projects speculate on whether the Secretary of State might overrule the Mayor on housing targets https://www.iceniprojects.com/5095-2
