LDN Weekly – Issue 327 – 31 July 2024 – Reeves and Mortar

REEVES AND MORTAR

Dear Reader,

Exhausted MPs are slowly drifting away from Westminster to recharge their batteries, but the Government didn’t let up in the last few days before summer recess to push ahead on the housebuilding and development front.

With Angela Rayner’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the Government didn’t opt for an easy end-of-term policy announcement. Instead, they’ve ripped up the previous Government’s policies on housebuilding and, consequently, set themselves up for a head on clash with the suburbs and Home Counties. New housing targets see a shift from the urban centres to the suburbs and commuter belt – London’s target falls, while the South-East and the East of England both see increases. And within this, some hotspots see large increases in housebuilding targets (St Albans +75%, Elmbridge +121%, Reigate & Banstead +97%).

Some will say this is politically motivated – shifting housing numbers from Labour areas to non-Labour areas (and a reverse of the last government’s policy). Others have pointed out that it took the last government a decade to realise that the best political option was to push building new homes on areas voting for other parties – it’s taken the new Government less than a month. Rayner has also written to metro mayors to outline the changes proposed for combined authorities, all in the ‘spirit of collaboration.’

But there is some sense to the Government’s plan. Greater London isn’t a sealed off, self-contained economic and social entity – it sits at the heart of a wider hinterland that sweeps much of the wider south-east into its orbit. The conveyor belt of Londoners leaving the city – sometimes through necessity, sometimes seeking bigger homes with gardens - is not new. In times past, this movement has sometimes been planned (see the New Towns and Expanded Towns in the 1950s and 60s) and sometimes organic. With the Government accepting the return of cross-boundary strategic planning, the wider south-east might finally see a proper joined-up approach to housing delivery that’s been lacking for decades. Could this be the resurrection of SERPLAN?

That doesn’t mean it isn’t without challenges. London still faces a viability headache and it is decades since it has got anywhere near building even the lower housing target. While the new pro-development group of backbench Labour MPs will be a welcome pressure group seeking to advance this whole agenda, when rubber hits the road and the thorny issue of planning decisions become local campaigning headaches, it could prove harder.

And then there’s infrastructure spending – Labour’s tough spending rules leave little room for investment in big new shiny kit – within London, that means continued uncertainty over the Bakerloo Line and Docklands Light Railway extensions – and on a wider south-east level, Crossrail 2 still looks a distant prospect. But serious amounts of new development will require investment in infrastructure – reintroducing housing targets and speeding up the planning system will only get us so far. Squaring this circle over the coming six months could turn out to be the defining issue in whether the Labour government really does get Britain building or not.

And…finally, some news from us. During August, LDN will take a summer break – there won’t be an edition on 14 August. And to give you advanced warning, LDN will permanently switch to Thursdays from 22 August, before we skip a week on 29 August. Moving a day later fits better with the rhythms of the political week and we hope this will improve the reader experience.

Nick Bowes, Managing Director, Insight

nb@londoncommunications.co.uk 

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REEVES AND RAYNER

Double whammy: No, not the name of ITV’s newest Sunday night detective drama, but the Government’s most senior women who’ve been firmly in the spotlight this week with a series of major announcements.

Audit outcome: First up was the Chancellor, who, as trailed over the weekend, revealed an audit of government spending had found a forecast overspend of £22bn for this financial year already. The audit fuelled speculation about what measures the Chancellor might announce to rectify the ‘black hole’ that she said the ‘reckless’ previous government had left. With the history books written by the victors, the response from the opposition front bench was unsurprisingly furious.

Cuts: On the day itself, the Chancellor announced cuts saving £5.5bn this year and £8.1bn next year, including the cancellation of two road projects and plans to reopen rail lines. Despite some coverage suggesting the Old Oak Common-Euston HS2 link and the Lower Thames Crossing could be dropped, neither were mentioned in the Chancellor’s statement. However, the New Hospitals Programme is to be reviewed and 10m pensioners are to lose their winter fuel allowance.

Budgeting: Following confirmation the Budget will take place on 30 October followed by a full Spending Review, Reeves conceded that it is now ‘likely’ to include tax increases. Local authorities will, however, be cheered by the prospect of multi-year spending settlements, with umbrella body describing it as “desperately needed”.

Rayner’s Gain: Next up was Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, delivering on the new Government’s commitment to publish a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) by the end of July with a day to spare.

Target practice: Back are mandatory local housing targets, using a new method of calculating housing need and removing the urban uplift in housing allocation imposed by the previous Government. Overall, the national target rises from 300,000 to 370,000 homes a year, with every region except one seeing a higher target under the new proposed method.

London Falling – London is the only region where the target falls. The previous 99,000 homes a year target for London was ‘removed from reality’, the revised formula sees this drop to around 80,000 – what Rayner called ‘ambitious but credible’. Campaign groups reacted negatively to the reduction, but it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that even the lower figure of 80,000 is still way in excess of anything the capital has achieved in recent memory.

Green Belt: Local authorities will have to review their Green Belt if they are unable to achieve their housing (or other development) targets, with the release of ‘grey belt’ prioritised – so what is it? The revised NPPF proposed a new definition as ‘land which makes a limited contribution to the Green Belt purposes’. More on this issue is certain.

Golden rules: Any Green Belt released for development will be subject to a new set of ‘golden rules’, with housing schemes required to include at least 50% affordable housing, as well as improvements to infrastructure and the provision of new or upgraded green space. How this will work viability wise remains to be tested.

Local Plans: All local authorities must have up to date local plans in place, with a view to achieving universal plan coverage. Rayner threatened councils, failing to put in place or update plans, with intervention to approve new homes.

Interventions: With a new spirit of interventionism, Rayner committed the Government to publish ministerial decisions on planning applications in public within 13 weeks. And, in a further show of ministerial intent, Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has approved a recovered appeal for a biomass plant. Hopefully, this will mean that the Government will not sit on decisions for purely political reasons.

Infrastructure: The Government reiterated the intention to improve the planning system to simplify the delivery of infrastructure such as data centres and laboratories, as well as reform the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) regime. The Government is also consulting on plans to allow local planning authorities to set their own planning fees.

Buried away: somewhat hidden in the consultation document was confirmation the new Government isn’t implementing the previous regime’s plans for an Infrastructure Levy.

New Towns: Squeezed in just as MPs break up for Summer recess is the appointment of experienced and widely-regarded duo of Sir Michael Lyons and Dame Kate Barker as Chair and Deputy of the New Towns Taskforce. The taskforce is charged with presenting a shortlist of recommendations on appropriate locations for the New Towns (to each have at least 10,000 new homes) within 12 months. Development will be guided by a ‘New Towns Code’ and will be expected to deliver 40% affordable homes, with a ‘focus’ on genuinely affordable social rented homes.

Rai Election: With Jas Athwal’s election to parliament, Cllr Kam Rai (who previously served as Athwal’s Deputy) was elected as the new leader of Redbridge Council. The changes at Redbridge follow hot on the heels of a new face at the top at Camden Council. Still no news from Enfield regarding the future of council leader Nesil Caliskan, who was also elected an MP on 4 July but it is widely expected she will stand down in the coming weeks.

Hackney down: Now that Hackney councillor Mete Coban is joining City Hall as Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy just days after another councillor was forced to stand down, this - by LDN’s reckoning – brings the by-election tally in the borough since the 2022 local elections to eight (including one mayoral by-election).  

Blighted borough: Down in Wandsworth, the council launched a consultation aiming to tackle the scourge of e-bikes dumped across the borough. The council also published a new proposal for a Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy, removing a restriction that meant funding income from developers must be spent in and around Nine Elms. Instead, the borough will now have a single borough-wide investment pot.

Even keel: This week, TfL’s board met and celebrated the ‘remarkable turnaround’ in the organisation’s finances since the Covid pandemic. The city’s public transport authority recorded a small surplus on the operating budget for the first time in 2023-24, with credit rating agencies uprating their assessment of TfL’s financial robustness. Big questions remain however over capital funding for new projects – Khan will be pinning his hopes on negotiations with the new Government before the autumn Spending Review.

Deep breath: In the first major analysis of the impact of the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to all of London, Khan has trumpeted the project as ’working even better than expected‘ with nitrogen oxide emissions from cars down 13% and particulate PM2.5 emissions 22% lower than would have happened without expansion.

Sadiq in Paris: With the Olympics kicking off this week, Paris joins London as the only city to have hosted the games three times. The Mayor Sadiq Khan hopped over the Channel for last Friday’s opening ceremony, and revived talk of a possible bid for the 2040 games. Ever the friendly rivals, if successful, London would nudge out ahead as a four-times host city.

Hammer time: Elsewhere, Khan poured cold water on the prospect of selling the 2012 Olympic stadium to West Ham United while there’s excitement for grapple fans, with Khan this week meeting former wrestling champion Triple H as talks continue over bringing WrestleMania to the capital.

Tourist attraction: Amidst all this, Khan found time to unveil his new Madame Tussaud’s waxwork - immortalised in wax the ultimate sign you’ve made it. Meanwhile, the Museum of London formally rebrands itself as… London Museum, and adopts a pigeon (complete with droppings) as a new logo.

• Residents backed Newham Council’s plans for the £500m regeneration of Canning Town Estate with 69.9% (56.6% turnout) voting in favour of the redevelopment. The plans would demolish and replace the existing 322 homes to provide 1,700 homes, 50% of which will be affordable, and 500 earmarked to be family-sized homes.
  
  
• Bromley Council has approved John Lewis Partnership’s (JLP) plans to deliver a 353-home (10% affordable) Build-to-Rent development on top of JLP’s Waitrose store in Bromley town centre. The plans proved controversial due to their low percentage of affordable housing.
  
  
• Kensington and Chelsea Council has adopted a new Local Plan following submission and approval by the Planning Inspectorate. The new plan requires all planning applications to have fire safety strategies submitted, while tall buildings of 30m or more will require a Qualitative Design Review panel report to ensure fire safety. The council has also amended its definition of ‘tall buildings’ redesignating them as any at 21m or above. The plan also implements a standardised 35% social housing target on all new residential applications of 650 sqm or more.
  
  
• Lambeth Council has appointed Higgins Group as its lead development partner to deliver the second phase of its Somerleyton Road development in Brixton, which proposes 363 new homes (54% affordable) and a 63-bed care home. Subject to planning permission, Higgins will lead the accelerated delivery of Lambeth’s affordable housing programme, building on the construction company’s recent successes in partnership with Newham Council topping out at its new fully affordable 81-home Greenhill Centre, and the opening of Southwark Council’s 56-home (46% affordable) Folajimi Apartments in Bermondsey.
  
  
• Obayashi Corporation and Sellar submitted plans to the City of London Corporation for the demolition of the nine-storey 60 Gracechurch Street and the delivery of a new 37-storey office building. The proposed redevelopment includes 2,013 sq ft of retail space, 6,588 sq ft of public space, as well as 893 sq ft of public learning space. The joint venture is aiming to maximise sustainability and high-quality office workspaces, as well as improvements to workplace wellbeing.
  
  
• London Square has submitted plans to deliver a 37-storey residential building in Vauxhall with 346 homes (13.2% affordable). The site currently has planning consent from Lambeth Council for previous developer Grand South to deliver 278 homes (8.2% affordable) in a 36-storey building. London Square acquired the site in May 2024 and has submitted this new application with amended designs to account for building safety regulations on second staircases.
  
  
• Co-living developer Re:shape has unveiled plans for a new residential scheme of at least 918 student beds, 410 co-living homes, and 100 affordable homes (40% overall affordable by habitable room) at the Electric Works site in Woolwich. The developer purchased the three-acre site from Legal & General in February 2024 and have since bought an adjacent site to create a larger development including a public square, townhouses, and heritage protection for the Electric Works building.
  
  
• Four London developments have been shortlisted for the 2024 Stirling Prize: the King’s Cross Masterplan, National Portrait Gallery, Elizabeth line, and the 11-home Chowdhury Walk in Hackney. The Royal Institute of British Architects considers the King’s Cross Masterplan to be a ‘vibrant, valuable addition to London’s public realm’, while praising the refurbished National Portrait Gallery as an ‘enhanced’ visitor experience. The winning development will be announced in October 2024.

• Lendlease’s Managing Director of UK Construction, Simon Gorski, is stepping down after 20 years with the construction business. He was appointed to the role in 2019 following the departure of Neil Martin, who now serves as CEO of Sir Robert McAlpine. Gorski is succeeded by former Executive General Manager for Lendlease’s regional business, David Cadiot.
  
  
• Former Deputy Mayor of London for Fire and Resilience, Baroness Twycross, has been appointed as a Government Whip and Minister for Gambling in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
  
  
• Chief Executive of the Barbican Centre, Claire Spencer, has stepped down from the role after two years. Spencer became the Barbican’s first CEO in May 2022. Recruitment for a new CEO will begin ‘following a period of reflection,’ with David Farnsworth stepping in as interim CEO.
  
  
• The Mayor of London has announced changes to the TfL Board. Kay Carberry, Bronwen Handyside, Mee Ling Ng, Nelson Ogunshakin, Lynn Sloman, and Nina Skorupska are stepping down. Seven new members are to be announced in due course in line with new governance changes expanding the Board to 14 members, alongside the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance.
  
  
• Former UK Chief Executive of Siemens, Jürgen Maier, has been appointed as Chair of the Government’s new energy company GB Energy. Maier is to lead the Government’s ambition to drive as much as £60bn of private investment in the UK’s renewable energy sector, with the company’s headquarters based in Scotland.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, PART IV

While Parliament closes its doors for a month of recess, the dust has all but settled on London’s new political landscape. In the final of our looks at London’s new MPs, here are the last five:

• David Pinto-Duschinsky, MP for Hendon (Labour, Majority: 15)
  Holding onto the most marginal seat in the UK is former special advisor and consultant, David Pinto-Duschinsky. After a full recount, he triumphed over his nearest challenger, Conservative Harrow councillor Ameet Jogia, pledging to stand up for Hendon’s Jewish community who make up 15% of the area’s population. Pinto-Duschinsky, who also stood in Hendon in the 2019 election, took his parliamentary oath on the Torah, pledging to work ‘tirelessly’ for his constituents.
  
  
• Joe Powell, MP for Kensington and Bayswater (Labour, Majority: 2,903)
  Former Deputy CEO of the Open Government Partnership and campaigner against corruption and fraud in public finances, Powell has declared that corruption and ‘dirty money’ is ‘not going to create growth in this country.’ In a similar vein, Powell’s founding leadership of Kensington Against Dirty Money has driven a grassroots local campaign to root out corrupt finances in the borough’s luxury property sector. Powell’s platform for improving local services and tackling inequality will no doubt be a welcome addition to the Prime Minister’s national ethos for change.
  
  
• Miatta Fahnbulleh, MP for Peckham (Labour, Majority: 15,228)
  One of Labour’s rising stars, Fahnbulleh has amassed experience across the public and private sectors, including in the Cabinet Office’s Policy Unit and as CEO for the New Economics Foundation. She has some big shoes to fill: Fahnbulleh takes over from Labour grandee Harriet Harman who served the area since 1982. Fahnbulleh has immediately been appointed Minister for Energy Consumers in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero – reuniting her with Ed Miliband who she previously worked for during his time as Labour leader.
  
  
• Georgia Gould, MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale (Labour, Majority: 14,913)
  Gould is the tireless former Leader of Camden Council and Chair of London Councils with strong family connections to the Labour movement - her father, the late Lord Philip Gould was a key architect of Tony Blair’s New Labour. She’s a strong ally of the Prime Minister with their shared Camden connections and her appointment straight to the front bench as a Cabinet Office Minister certainly raised a few eyebrows. In this role, she’ll be leading on public service reform and the Government’s ‘mission boards.’
  
  
• James Asser, MP for West Ham and Beckton (Labour, Majority: 9,254)
  Since his student days, Asser’s been at the heart of policy, politics and campaigns. First elected to Newham Council in 2018, he quickly became Deputy Mayor, leading on environment policy. He was a last-minute candidate for the new West Ham & Beckton constituency, selected in the days after the General Election was called. As a former Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee, Asser will also a key backbench ally for the new Government.

WE RECOMMEND

• The Spectator and The Times on the new Labour Growth Group of MPs.
• The plans to rewild Harold’s Park, a farm between Waltham Abbey and Epping Forest.
• The Guardian on the challenges facing iconic fashion retailers on Fonthill Road, Islington.
• Lee Valley’s Shaun Dawson on the success of honouring legacy in London’s Olympic heritage.

WHY HERITAGE PRESERVATION CAN BE A CATALYST FOR URBAN REGENERATION 

Avison Young is featured in this week’s Building. Sensitive appreciation and preservation of an area’s history is vital to ensure the longevity and resilience of its regeneration, say Mike Cook, Director in Building and Project consultancy, and Martyn Saunders, Principal in Place. In the piece, Mike and Martyn explore how the built environment can deliver such a complex and costly task.

 UNANIMOUS CONSENT FOR WESTFIELD STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

LCA were thrilled to help Westfield achieve a unanimous planning consent last week by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) for a new mixed use development on top of an underused car park at Stratford City. The plans strengthen Westfield’s historical investment in the area by delivering 520 high quality student beds, enhancing public areas at ground level and providing a flexible, publicly accessible space on the rooftop. We are proud of the consultation we ran during this project, working with Make Space for Girls and LLDC’s youth panel, Elevate, to ensure the plans were designed by and for the local community.

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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