LDN Weekly – Issue 244 – 16 November 2022 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW
“Lots of eyeballs will be trained on tomorrow’s Autumn Statement. Indeed, they are likely to be flitting from their latest energy bill, to their mortgage statement or rental agreement and back to the Chancellor with a mix of horror and hope."
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LCA Managing Director, Insight, Jenna Goldberg Oh and a technical note: If you like hearing from us, make sure to add ldn@londoncommunications.co.uk to your contacts or ‘safe sender’ list – this will help ensure our news bulletin lands in your inbox.  GRENFELL INQUIRY LATESTAfter four long years, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry has finally concluded. A report on the second phase of the inquiry, which focused on the cause of the fire, will now be produced by chairman Martin Moore-Bick. The inquiry’s counsel, Richard Millet’s final speech focused on what he called a ‘merry-go-round of buck passing’ amongst the inquiry’s participants, something which has also been highlighted in Peter Apps moving coverage of the hearings. Millet said that each one of the 72 deaths caused by the fire was completely ‘avoidable’, as the risks at Grenfell ‘were well known by many’. Once the report is published, the Metropolitan Police is expected use it as evidence that will be presented to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider if charges will be brought against those involved. Potential crimes include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, fraud and health and safety offences. For many survivors and bereaved, criminal sentences would bring some closure, though there are concerns that prosecutions will not take place, while there are also fears that not enough has yet been done in the reform of social housing to avoid another similar incident from occurring. Indeed, as we report below, just this week it has been found that a two year old boy died as a result of exposure to mould in his socially-rented home in Rochdale. LONDON PLANNING ROUNDUP
STRIKE CITY (CONT'D)The Mayor finds himself under fire from all sides as industrial action over cuts to jobs, pensions and conditions at Transport for London (TfL) continues to rock London. The GLA Conservatives have blamed Tube strikes on the Mayor, accusing him of a ‘broken promise of zero strikes’ (referring to a 2016 election pledge) and saying that ‘militant unions are striking because they know Sadiq Khan is too weak to stand up to them and deliver much needed reforms to the bloated pension scheme.’ The Tories have even produced a series of slick attack ads centred on the strikes. Unions aren’t too pleased with City Hall either. The RMT claims that TfL has ‘refused to reach a compromise’, whilst the TUC has directly blamed the Mayor, insisting he is ‘responsible’. For their part, the Mayor and TfL insist that planned job cuts do not entail layoffs and that no cuts or other changes to terms and conditions have been decided – underlining that central Government mandated savings targets are the real issue. Walkouts at TfL do raise a host of concerns, but industrial action is not limited to transport (nor to London). So is it really in the Mayor’s gift to single-handedly stop the strikes? Probably not. The next Tube strike is scheduled for 26 November, whilst Abellio-run bus services will be affected by industrial action 22, 26, and 26 November, plus seven days in December. STAMFORD BRIDGE NO MORE?In fulfilling their commitment to upgrading Chelsea’s stadium, the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital regime faces the dilemma of redeveloping Stamford Bridge… or relocating. Having already submitted plans to ‘revamp’ the stadium with largely cosmetic changes, the new owners have reportedly formed a team of architects to produce new options – and are said to have already explored proposals for a 60,000-capacity stadium that were approved in 2018. As the site is located in a busy residential area, additional space is certainly required to mitigate construction challenges. The club has reportedly expressed interest in acquiring housing association Stoll’s site next to the stadium, a deal that could remove obstacles to receiving planning permission. Another option is resurrecting attempts to relocate away from Stamford Bridge, an extremely difficult challenge for two reasons. Firstly, the club would require permission from Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), the shareholder group that both owns the name and the pitch, and secondly they would need to find a suitable site. As the only Premier League side in the capital not to have redeveloped or progressed plans in recent history, time is ticking for the club to find a solution. PEOPLE NEWS
 GOVE ON THE WARPATH?The Levelling Up Secretary has been doing a lot of ‘talking tough’ lately. Speaking at a think tank conference, Michael Gove indulged in his favourite hobby of bashing private developers. We’ve watched his wide-ranging speech (starting at 27mins, here) in full and found that he said little about how he would tackle their various alleged misdeeds, aside from boilerplate references to still in-the-works design codes and using call-in powers to block developments. He did mention a series of new ‘propositions’ that would ensure local plans make it ‘more difficult for developers to wriggle out of their responsibilities’ but wouldn’t say more, because (he said) industry representatives in the room ‘will probably already be working on how they can work the system to their advantage.’ Elsewhere, Gove took aim at local government and housing associations in general when responding to the tragic loss of two year old Awaab Ishak, who was found to have died of a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his family’s Rochdale Boroughwide Housing-owned flat. Gove notably said ‘…all this what-aboutery, all this 'Oh, if only we had more government money' - do your job, man.’ KHAN v POVERTYAhead of tomorrow’s Autumn Statement, the Mayor is keen to be seen promoting the interests and needs of vulnerable Londoners. Recent press releases from City Hall, ‘demand’ both ‘mortgage support for homeowners’ as well as ‘immediate help’ for others. In both cases, he cites the latest in a series of YouGov polls on the cost of living, which paints a grim picture of the tough conditions faced by Londoners on middling and low incomes. His asks are by now very familiar, including more subsidies for free school meals, domestic energy bill support, and help for households struggling to pay mortgages. Also, his personal favourite: granting City Hall ‘the power to freeze private rents in London’. On which point, the Mayor convened an ‘emergency private renting summit’ on Monday, again citing the abovementioned poll’s findings, which included evidence that ‘40% of Londoners think they will struggle to meet rent payments in the next six months.’ The Mayor used the event to repeat his proposals for the private rental sector. Sadly, it appears landlords were not invited. RAYNER ❤ CROSSRAIL 2?Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner’s comments at Coin Street Community Centre in Waterloo last week will have been music to many Londoners’ ears. Rayner said that a Labour Government would give Crossrail 2 the go ahead. The project, which would see the creation of a new line, improving rail connections between Surrey, Hertfordshire and London, has been put on ice due to a lack of funding, though the land for the proposed route in London has been safeguarded. Being a Greater Manchester MP, Rayner was also eager to say that Labour would also prioritise improvements to rail in the North of England. With the latest political polling still showing Labour comfortably in the lead, the Party has been setting out what it would do differently in Government. Elsewhere, Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that restrictions on the delivery of onshore windfarms will be removed, which he says would lead to cheaper energy bills as well as 100,000 new jobs in the sector. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has however highlighted that the current state of the economy would put ‘constraints’ on a Labour Government’s ambitions. LABOUR v LABOURWhile national polling continues to paint a positive picture for Labour, ongoing controversy surrounding the party’s parliamentary selection process suggests Keir Starmer faces an uphill battle to unite his party. The Party’s left wing is crying foul after Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) intervened to dissolve selection committees for two London seats. In Camberwell & Peckham, the NEC reinstalled Johnson Situ’s candidacy and dissolved the committee over allegations members leaked the shortlist to local media. It is fair to say that many local members were not pleased and view the decision as an effort to ensure the selection of a Starmer loyalist. Similarly, a Kensington Labour Party source blasted the dissolution of its selection committee, describing the NEC’s decision as an ‘unashamed manipulation of democracy’. Elsewhere, the selection of Christian Wakeford in Bury South without a trigger ballot process and the selection of former Haringey Labour councillor Alan Strickland in Sedgefield has given the Party’s left additional ammunition to argue Starmer is ‘purging’ them. Amongst all the selection rumblings, rumours that Jeremy Corbyn could contest the London mayoralty as an independent if he is not able to contest his parliamentary seat as a Labour candidate have resurfaced. These whispers have become something of a recurring theme, which somehow seem to return every time Corbyn’s reselection is threatened… 
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