LDN Weekly – Issue 316 – 16 May 2024 – The Shape of Things to Come

Dear Reader,

Sadiq Khan has only ever dealt with a Conservative government during all of his time as Mayor. Both his predecessors had periods with their own party in government – both say this allowed them to get more done.

For the next few months at least, Khan will continue facing a Tory Government. Yet he and his team will be looking at the polls and thinking that it is only another few months – by the end of the year, they’ll be banking on Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street. Given how Khan’s recent manifesto reads – as if written in close cooperation with Starmer’s team – delivering on some of his key promises depends on that political alignment between City Hall and the Government in Westminster being a reality.

But let’s not get carried away just yet and return to today. Neither Khan nor the Government have much of an incentive to want to reset relations following the election on 2 May. Government ministers have no doubt concluded that there’s little in it for them politically to play nice with London – and, in fact, quite the opposite. It will continue to land well with their core vote beyond the M25 to go hard on Khan and the city more generally. For Khan, with a refreshed mandate and calculating that the Government will be gone by Christmas, exerting energy on rebuilding relations with ministers seems pointless.

 Already we’ve seen signs of a return to the face off that has characterised the last few years. At the weekend, Transport Secretary Mark Harper - dismissing Khan’s refreshed mandate – re-affirmed the Government’s intentions to continue fighting the Mayor’s so-called anti-motorist policies. I doubt Michael Gove will be long before he renews his fight with Khan over the London Plan. Khan launched a broadside at the Government for failing to invest enough in new homes in London. Expect more heat and not much light on both sides in the weeks ahead.

 Khan is a pugilist and loves a political fight - but might he act differently this time? Could he be content to run the clock down to the General Election, while pointing at a Government in its death throes? Perhaps he’ll go further and up the ante - claiming that, after the recent election, the government no longer has the legitimacy to intervene in London. That would be a bold statement. 

 But beyond the politics, London still has an extensive list of priorities – from tackling deep-seated social problems, to kickstarting the stalled development sector, to ensuring the city’s competitiveness in the global market place is maintained. Yet big decisions – such as whether the Treasury will fund the Docklands Light Railway Extension to Thamesmead – seem unlikely this side of the election.

 Perhaps this week we saw the shape of things to come, as Keir Starmer convened Labour’s mayors in the West Midlands, asking them to work on ten year local growth plans. The pictures sure looked cordial – but in opposition, it’s much easier to maintain harmony. It will be magnitudes harder in government. But perhaps we witnessed the beginnings of a different relationship between the Mayor and a future government – and one which could be positive for the city.

Nick Bowes, Managing Director, Insight

nb@londoncommunications.co.uk

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SADIQ'S FIRST WEEK

Launch: Sworn in this week, Sadiq Khan pledged to make London ‘the best city in the world to grow up in’ and ‘ensure London becomes a byword for opportunity again’.

Continuity Khan: Few changes to Khan’s top team, with only two departures - Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience Fiona Twycross and Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy Shirley Rodrigues. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Regeneration Jules Pipe adds fire to his portfolio, with skills (sensibly) shifted to Deputy Mayor for Business Howard Dawber.

Out of the traps: For his first major policy announcement since his re-election, Khan unveiled £14.5m of funding for schemes bringing councils and community groups together to tackle violent crime at ‘hyper-local, neighbourhood level’.

United front? Khan and fellow Labour mayors from across England gathered in Wolverhampton with Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner. He welcomed a pledge made by the Labour leader that boosting economic growth in all parts of the country will be ‘top of the agenda’ for a Labour government. Starmer has tasked Labour Mayors with coming up with plans so any incoming government can hit the ground running.

Rejoining the battle: The Mayor also accused the Government of exacerbating the housing crisis by failing to properly fund the delivery of new homes in London. While calling for an ‘emergency stimulus’ of an extra £2.2bn for new social and genuinely affordable homes, he launched a new £100m Housing Kickstart Fund designed to help restart stalled developments.

Papal blessings: The Mayor heads to the Vatican for the first overseas trip of his third term. In his capacity as Co-Chair of C40 Cities, he will have a private audience with Pope Francis and speak at the ‘Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience’ summit.

Football frenzy: Football-mad Khan unveiled a four-day UEFA Champions Festival in central London to accompany the Champions League final on 1 June at Wembley Stadium. Sadly no British teams – let alone London teams – have made it to the final.

Fashion police: LDN doesn’t usually stray into sartorial territory, but the green suit Khan wore for his swearing in last week has divided opinion. Many of the capital’s 30-something men, who were saving the Percival suit for summer weddings, are lamenting the fact that the Mayor got there first.

BLUE'S BLUES

Ferrets in a sack: Meanwhile, recriminations and finger pointing in the Conservative Party over who is to blame for their defeat in the Mayoral election. The Evening Standard’s long piece on the fallout is worth a read, with senior Tory figures slamming the campaign’s negativity, criticising the lack of funding and contrasting the party’s poor organisation with that of London Labour.

Scully’s revenge: Even before Susan Hall’s defeat was officially confirmed, former Minister for London (and one time aspirant to be the Tory Mayoral candidate) Paul Scully was sticking the knife in. Not pulling his punches, Scully laid into the ‘selection failure’ and negativity of Hall’s campaign. Hall snapped back, calling Scully’s remarks ‘sour grapes’.

Nick of time: One of Hall’s former Tory colleagues on the London Assembly, Nick Rogers, blamed the manifesto, pointing to the absence of anything for younger professional voters, and accusing the ‘outsized focus’ on the ‘war on motorists language’ as having learned the wrong lessons from the Uxbridge by-election. Expect more hanging out of the dirty washing in the coming weeks as the Tory Party wrestles with how to restore their flagging popularity in London.

Pity Hall: Undeterred, Hall came out fighting. In a video thanking her supporters, Hall’s choice of words in claiming she ‘so nearly’ defeated Khan – despite losing by nearly 280,000 votes, 11 percentage points and posting the lowest Tory vote in 20 years – raised some eyebrows. In her defence, it is true Hall outpolled her own party in London by some margin.

Telegraphing: In the Sunday Telegraph, Hall revealed how the night before the votes were counted she believed she might have won. Hall also laid into Labour’s Wes Streeting, blaming his attacks for leaving her feeling unsafe on public transport. It’s worth remembering that Hall was re-elected to the London Assembly – with Hall herself admitting there is no love lost between her and Khan (evident by anyone who witnessed the handshake at the declaration), expect more clashes in the coming months.

• The High Court granted permission for a judicial review into the Secretary of State’s decision to grant planning consent for Mitsubishi Estate and CO-RE’s plans to redevelop the former ITV Studios on the South Bank. Campaigners from the Save Our South Bank Action Group successfully applied for a judicial review into Gove’s decision from February 2024, when he consented to the proposed demolition of the site to create 79,000 sqm of office and commercial space in two towers of 14 and 25 storeys, connected by a six-storey podium.
  
  
• The All England Lawn Tennis Club has submitted changes to the planning application for the expansion of Wimbledon, increasing the amount of land that will be open to the public from 23 to 27 acres. The plans, which include the delivery of 39 new grass courts and a new 8,000-seat stadium, were rejected by Wandsworth Council but approved by Merton Council. The Mayor of London called-in the plans in January 2024with a hearing expected to take place later this summer.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Marylebone Cricket Club secured planning permission from Westminster City Council for the proposed WilkinsonEyre-designed overhaul of two stands at Lords Cricket Club. The club proposes demolition and replacement of the Allen Stand and redevelopment and extension of the Tavern stand, to deliver 1,107 additional seats in new tiers, as well as a new top-floor bar and roof.
  
  
• Westminster City Council approved Henigman’s plans to demolish the nine-storey former West Central Police Station on Savile Row, replacing it with an eight-storey office building providing 72,000 sq ft office floorspace and 8,500 sq ft of restaurant space. Planning officers had recommended refusal as the scheme failed ‘to preserve or enhance’ the nearby Regent Street conservation area, despite support from Savile Row businesses. The committee voted four to two in favour of approval with committee chair Cllr Ruth Bush (Lab) stating that ‘this was not a building that could be rescued’ through retention and refurbishment.
  
  
• Westminster City Council also approved Hines’ reworked plans to demolish 2-4 Dean Street and deliver a seven-storey office development. The developer’s previous proposals to deliver a ground floor retail and community ‘Bazaar’ within the scheme has been removed from the design, while retaining the Tesco supermarket on site.
  
  
• Asda has sold 10 acres of its Park Royal site to Barratt Developments as part of a new joint venture to deliver 1,500 homes (around one-third affordable) and a new 60,000 sq ft flagship supermarket. The transaction is the first in Asda’s property history which would see an established store part of a new mixed-use redevelopment.
  
  
• Hackney Council has approved Berkeley Group’s plans to carry out the fourth phase of Woodberry Down estate regeneration. As part of the developer’s 20-year redevelopment, the latest phase includes the demolition of six buildings, replaced with seven buildings providing over 500 homes, including a 26-storey tower.
  
  
• Lewisham Council has agreed a new lease with Millwall FC for the club to remain at its stadium The New Den for 999 years. The new lease also unlocks opportunities for the club to deliver plans for wider regeneration and development around the stadium, which the club will submit ‘in due course’.
  
• Kroll Real Estate Advisory Group has placed the 37-acre Cavalry Barracks site in Hounslow up for sale, after the previous owner, Hounslow Property Development Company, a subsidiary of Inland Homes, went into administration. Previous plans for the site including 1,525 homes (35% affordable) and 2,673 sqm of non-residential commercial and community space were granted by Hounslow Council in October 2022.
  
  
• Lambeth Council voted unanimously to keep the London Eye as a permanent fixture on the South Bank, ensuring that the attraction remains open and pays 1% of annual turnover to local amenities. Approved as a temporary structure in 1999, the Eye was consented as a permanent feature in 2003 with a clause which required the Council to review whether to keep the Eye in place after 25 years. 
  
  
• Bury Street Properties has appointed Foster & Partners to lead on design for its refurbishment and retrofit of the Gherkin. The developer is seeking to upgrade the existing floorspace to higher energy efficiency levels, rather than seek a change of use.

• After holding the role for 10 months on an interim basis, Dawn Carter-McDonald has been appointed as Hackney Council’s permanent Chief Executive. She first joined the council in 2002 and assumed the interim role following the resignation of Mark Carroll in August 2023.
  
  
• Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association has appointed current Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council, Melbourne Barrett, as their new Chief Executive. Barrett has led the council since 2020 and will succeed outgoing CEO Geeta Nanda, who steps down after 16 years in the role.
  
  
• Former Chief Executive of Islington Council, Lesley Seary, has been appointed as Lead Best Value Inspector to Spelthorne Council, while former Ealing Council CEO Paul Najsarek is to lead the Best Value Inspection at Warrington Council.
  
  
• Director of RCKa Russell Curtis has been appointed as Chair of Barnet Council’s first Quality Review Panel, aimed at ensuring the borough’s built environment is to high design standards.
  
  
• Faye Cooke has been appointed as a new Trustee at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while Chirstopher Gilligan, Paul Nurse, Judith Batchelar and David Richardson have all been re-appointed.
  
  
• Gordon Seabright is to join the Horniman Museum and Gardens as their new Chief Executive from June.
  
  
• Adam Lent has stepped down as Chief Executive of New Local after seven years leading the local government network and think tank.
  
  
• Managing Partner at Montagu Evans, Rob Bower, is to leave his role in March 2025 after nearly 40 years with the firm. Bower has been a member of the firm’s leadership for 10 years and oversaw expansion into new subsectors including logistics, healthcare and residential.
  
  
• CBRE has promoted Louise Wyman to Head of UK Public Sector, leading the firm’s commercial and economic regeneration team.
  
  
• Mace has announced a number of changes to its senior management team. From January 2025, Mark Reynolds will become the firm’s Executive Chairman and Jason Millett will take on the role of Chief Executive. CEO for Construction Gareth Lewis is to step down in July and will be replaced by Andrew Jackson.
  
  
• Subsidiary of Hounslow Council, Lampton Group, has appointed Alan Townshend as interim Group Managing Director. Townshend joins with over four decades of experience in social housing, including as Chief Executive of Southern Housing.
  
  
• Former Liberal Democrat Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, Lord Andrew Stunell, has died aged 81. Stunell was MP for Hazel Grove from 1997-2015, and a member of the party’s team for negotiating the coalition agreement with the Conservative Party following the 2010 General Election.

• Edmonton MP Kate Osamor has had the Labour Whip restored following an internal investigation into comments made on the conflict in Gaza. She has been issued with a formal written warning and publicly apologised.
  
  
• Labour councillor for Streatham Wells, Marianna Masters, in Lambeth is the party’s candidate for St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire at the General Election.
  
  
• Eva Kestner, Labour councillor for Lee Green in Lewisham, will fight Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross in Scotland at the General Election.
  
  
• Former England cricketer Monty Panesar has withdrawn as the Workers Party of Britain parliamentary candidate for Ealing Southall just weeks after he was first unveiled. 

Out with the old: Overshadowed by the Mayoral contest was the election of 25 members of the London Assembly, whose role is to scrutinise the Mayor’s policies.

Grass is greener: Siân Berry, just three days after her election, announced that she would be stepping down from the Assembly. Berry’s dramatic move paved the way for the next Green Party candidate on the list to take her place, who happens to be unsuccessful mayoral candidate Zoë Garbett. A three-times mayoral candidate herself, Berry had previously been selected as the Green Party candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the General Election. Her decision also provides fuel to those who question the effectiveness of the Assembly more generally.

Never too far away: Garbett is ‘disappointed’ that Berry’s resignation became ‘a story’, pointing to other Assembly Members in the past who resigned to contest parliamentary seats. Fellow Green London-wide Assembly Member Caroline Russell said that it was ‘hugely generous and noble’ of berry to give up the role.

Sour (green) grapes: While Berry’s resignation is perfectly within the rules, it’s fair to say it doesn’t feel as if her actions are within the spirit of the law, and have left a bad taste in the mouth of many in and around London politics. Shadow Health Secretary and Ilford North MP Wes Streeting called the resignation ‘very poor’.

Losers’ gallery: Two incumbent Assembly Members will not be returning to City Hall. Conservative AM Tony Devenish was ousted from West Central (as we predicted in LDN) – the first time Labour have captured the seat. Labour’s London-wide member Sakina Sheikh also misses out on a return to the Assembly as a result of the complicated system for electing London-wide members.

New kids on the block I: Two new faces join Labour’s ranks – Ealing councillor Bassam Mahfouz elected in Ealing and Hillingdon and James Small-Edwards in West Central. Liberal Democrat Hina Bokhari is joined by the newly-elected member for South West (and Leader of Richmond Council, a role reconfirmed in the past few days), Gareth Roberts, who becomes the party’s first-ever constituency member. Reform UK’s Alex Wilson nabs the final Assembly slot – the first time the party has been elected in London at any level.

New kids on the block II: While losing two constituency assembly members, the Tory representation on the Assembly is propped up via the London-wide list. The two new faces for the Tories are Thomas Turrell (Bexley and Bromley) and list candidate (and Enfield councillor) Alessandro Georgiou.

Business as usual: Despite some new faces, there’s a strong sense of familiarity with veteran Conservative London-wide member Andrew Boff back in the role as Chair, deputised by the experienced Labour AM Len Duvall of Greenwich and Lewisham. Duvall has served on the Assembly since day one, while Boff remains the Tories’ longest-serving AM, first elected in 2008.

NLA WATCH

LCA partner New London Architecture has unveiled the details for this year’s highly coveted Mayor’s Prize, as part of the New London Awards 2024. This year’s Mayor’s Prize will be awarded to a project which best exemplifies the inclusion of children and young people in shaping the city. The NLA has also published its latest Tall Buildings Survey, ‘London’s Growing Up: A Decade of Building Tall’, which has found that there are 583 buildings of over 20 storeys in height currently in development in the capital.

WE RECOMMEND

• Our very own Nick Bowes and his top ten takeaways from the 2023 London Mayoral Elections
• The Thames Barrier’s 40^th birthday and the 25^th anniversary of the Jubilee line extension. 
• The fatberg uncovered in east London the same weight as three double-decker buses.
• The struggles over fixing London’s broken bridges
• The Evening Standard look at Oxford Street’s recovery
• The FT call for a new growth plan for London
• What should Labour learn from Sadiq Khan? Take a stand – and don’t back down
• Cameron Smith argues the Tories need to rebrand as the London Conservative Party

LESS THAN A WEEK TO UKREiiF!

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LCA AT THE NLA

LCA’s Nick Bowes unveiled the latest analysis by the Insight team of the recent London elections at an NLA breakfast this week. Attended by over 100 people at the London Centre, Nick presented his top ten take aways from the elections, before looking ahead to the General Election later in the year. He then took part in a panel discussion along with LSE’s Professor Tony Travers, British Land’s Emma Cariaga and Ian Mulcahey from Gensler, which was chaired by Avison Young’s Kat Hanna.

THE FUTURE OF THE UK'S FILM INDUSTRY RELIES ON CONSIDERED DESIGN

Our client WilkinsonEyre talks about one of their latest projects, Marlow Film Studios, in BE News. Director Oliver Tyler comments on the future of the UK’s film industry, and how the country’s studio space is being recognised as an increasingly valuable asset for investors and developers. Read the full piece here.

LDN CONTRIBUTORS 

LCA prides itself on its intelligence-led approach to PR and communications and our dedicated insight 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. 

Nick Bowes

Managing Director, Insight

Robert Gordon Clark

Senior Advisor and Partner

Emily Clinton

Account Manager, Insight 

 Daniel Reast

Insight Executive

Design:  Aroa Maquedano Pulido

We strive for balance and accuracy at all times; however, if you feel we have made a mistake, omission or have misrepresented a story or issue please alert the team by contacting the LDN team by using the details above.

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