LDN Weekly – Issue 174 – 26 May 2021
TWO STEPS FORWARD
With the election done, AGM season in full bloom, a vaccine surge underway and the weather, please god, the weather about to turn to the good, there’s a fresh start vibe around London town.
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LCA Board Director and LDN Editor Jenna Goldberg  AGMs LATESTNo fewer than eight boroughs have held their Annual General Meeting (AGM) since our last edition:
Looking ahead, Lambeth Labour Group has selected Cllr Claire Holland (the current Deputy Leader) to succeed outgoing Jack Hopkins as Leader of the Council. Her appointment is to be confirmed at the Council’s AGM on 2 June. And in Haringey, Cllr Peray Ahmet has been selected to replace Joe Ejiofor as leader, with her new role expected to be confirmed at the Council’s AGM tomorrow. Once they are appointed, more than one-third of London’s boroughs will have leaders that did not head up their respective local parties when they competed in the last elections, in May 2018. ITS A NUMBERS GAMEWe’re always on the lookout for clues about the state of London and the trajectory of the city’s recovery. For similarly-minded London-watchers, we’d highlight two key reports released yesterday by City Hall’s indefatigable data crunchers. First, a report on population change in London during the pandemic, which found ‘it is hard not to conclude that the population of London is likely to have fallen since the start of the pandemic.’ While it offers assurances that ‘the scale of such a fall is likely to be far short of the more dramatic figures that have been reported in the press’ it also underlines that ‘more important than the absolute size of any immediate drop in population will be the extent to which changes persist as restrictions are eased and the city begins to recover.’ Second, GLA Economics’ latest and 38th London forecast – which has also been highlighted by the City Hall press office – suggests some optimism in terms of a swift return to overall economic growth, while warning that the labour market is likely to get worse before it gets better. We’ve also been looking closely at the financial disclosures of the property sector’s ‘big beasts’, with British Land, Landsec and Shaftesbury among key players to recently publish half- or full-year results. LONDON PLANNING LATEST
 TRANSPORT ROUNDUPAs we await news of a funding agreement between Transport for London and the Government – due by Friday – there’s plenty to report from elsewhere in the transport sector:
BILLS, BILLS, BILLSFollowing the Queen’s Speech earlier this month, a number of bills are coming forward – and some… are not. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill is currently making its way through Parliament at a spirited pace, with the Second Reading in the Lords having taken place on 24 May and the Committee Stage to start from 9 June. The purpose of the Bill, which is the first in a two-part legislative process to reform leasehold, is principally to ‘set future ground rents to zero’ from April 2023. The Environment Bill has meanwhile been returned to Parliament today for its Report Stage and Third Reading in the Commons. The Bill outlines a series of measures to reduce air pollution, reduce waste and – critically for the built environment sector – ensure that new developments produce a net plus effect on biodiversity. The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill has meanwhile also been introduced to Parliament, with its Second Reading in the House of Lords to take place from 15 June. While these and other pieces of legislation heralded by the Queen’s Speech are making progress, the details and timeline for the introduction of the long-awaited, much touted and – let’s face it, much-maligned – Planning Bill remain unclear. Perhaps many Tory MPs’ vigorous opposition to the proposals of the relevant White Paper has something to do with the delay? BARRATT BUYS BACKWe mentioned leasehold reform above and as our readers will be aware, this is a bigger issue than just ground rents. The costs of addressing buildings’ defects including but not limited to dangerous cladding – and who is responsible for paying these – has been a hugely controversial issue. It is therefore worth highlighting a report by The Times according to which Barratt has decided to buy back 95 flats from leaseholders in Croydon following the discovery of significant ‘structural issues’ with the concrete frames on one of its developments. The issue was identified by Barratt following a review of its developments in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. The leaseholders were moved out of their homes in September 2019, with Barratt funding their accommodation until the end of 2020. In addition to buying the flats from leaseholders, Barratt is also reportedly buying the freehold of the development. A remarkable – and commendable – initiative. The question remains how many developers, housing associations and other housebuilders have the will, and the means, to do the same. HIGH STREETS FIESTA?The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) last week announced a new round of funding for 57 high streets in England to ‘improve transport links, build new homes and transform underused spaces’. Four high streets in London have benefitted from the funding, with £10m allocated to Tottenham, over £17m to Woolwich, over £7m to Wealdstone and over £1m to Putney. Looking at the allocations individually, London has fared fairly well, with only Grimsby receiving more than Woolwich - though Putney did receive the smallest share of funding of all 57 high streets and the capital’s cumulative allocation amounts to a paltry 4% of the total. Even if one doesn’t find the sums slightly concerning, one must be given pause by a relevant announcement by the Prime Minister, which linked this to wider ‘plans for better high streets, stronger schools and more jobs outside of London’ [emphasis added]. Aside from high streets funding, his announcement also mentioned support for local authorities, the expansion of the Opportunity Areas programme and the relocation of civil service jobs outside London and the South East. Thankfully, there are bright minds working on the challenges faced by London’s high streets, with Centre for London only today publishing a report on ‘Community town centres’, which urges the Government to give communities more of a say about what happens on their high streets. 
We were delighted to participate in the ‘virtual’ HD5K charity run last week, in support of the Alan Davidson Foundation and the Motor Neuron Disease Association. Our runners raced alongside (although virtually) others from across the property and design world to support people with MND and commemorate the extraordinary life of the late Alan Davidson. Of course, this wasn’t a race per se, but… being competitive sorts we were rather chuffed that we came second in both the male and female categories of the race, with fleet-footed Board Director Suzi Lawrence and speedy Account Director Declan Bennett both bringing home silver medals. Congratulations to our other runners also, including our Chair Robert Gordon Clark who no less enthusiastically rowed the distance in his living room. And well done to our Managing Director Jonny Popper too, for spiritedly walking the five kilometres with his two toy poodles.
The LDN team has been (virtually) out and about this week, delivering more of our post-election presentations to our clients, friends and associates. Just yesterday, Board Director Jenna Goldberg and Research Executive Emily Clinton shared their thoughts with the London chapter of Urbanistas and later in the day, our Chairman Robert Gordon Clark and friend Professor Tony Travers of the LSE talked elections and ‘the state of London’ with colleagues at London Councils. LDN CONTRIBUTORSRobert Gordon Clark, Executive Chairman and Partner Jenna Goldberg, Board Director Stefanos Koryzis, Research Manager Emily Clinton, Research Executive Aroa Maquedano Pulido, Middleweight Designer LCA prides itself on its intelligence-led approach to PR and communications and our dedicated research team monitors London politics, news and issues as it happens. If you would like to know more about LCA or anything in this edition of LDN – London in short please get in touch.If you have received LDN Weekly indirectly and would like to subscribe to receive it every week, please click here to register your details.LDN is put together by a dedicated team at London Communications Agency. The content for each edition is developed from news drawn from the last week from every London local paper as well as the regional and national press, from intelligence gathered by monitoring local, regional and national government activity and from the insight and expert knowledge of the entire LCA team.    |