LDN Weekly – Issue 38 – 18 July 2018
THE (E)STATE OF PLAY
With the London Assembly and Parliamentary recess just around the bend, we started the week here at LCA thinking that it would be a relatively quiet one – and were very much mistaken. That’s London for you.
No Images? Click here THE (E)STATE OF PLAYWith the London Assembly and Parliamentary recess just around the bend, we started the week here at LCA thinking that it would be a relatively quiet one – and were very much mistaken. That’s London for you. This edition covers the revelation of the Tories’ longlist of prospective candidates for the 2020 Mayoral elections and their efforts to grapple with their ‘London problem.’ In the sphere of planning policy and development, we take a look at the Mayor’s final policy guidance for balloting estate residents affected by regeneration projects, Haringey Council putting the last nail in the HDV’s coffin and the Government’s new Estates Strategy. We also juxtapose two Labour-run boroughs’ seemingly contradictory approaches to balloting estate residents, as well as key planning decisions in a third. Finally, we’ve thrown in some key people moves and the lowdown on a number of recent reports and events, which anyone interested in London politics and planning should know about. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback and do follow us on Twitter @LDNComms if you don’t already. WHITHER THE LONDON TORIES?The local elections in May did not result in absolute disaster for the Tories and, indeed, the party showed remarkable resilience. But the election did serve to highlight the party’s weaknesses and its much talked about ‘London problem.’ Beset by internal divisions over Brexit and other key policy areas, weakened by a natural process of attrition after eight years in government and undercut by major demographic and socioeconomic shifts across the country, the party’s campaign strategy is in need of a radical overhaul. This week saw one of the first signs of a concerted effort to diagnose and address the party’s weaknesses in London and beyond, with the launch of a new report focusing on perceptions of the party among Black and Ethnic Minority voters. The report was commissioned by Onward, a Conservative ‘campaigning think tank,’ and drew on polling by Populus – all of which can be accessed in full here. The report concludes that ‘the Party’s challenge amongst BAME voters is as great as amongst 18-24 year olds’. Of BAME voters polled, 24% said that the Conservatives are ‘on their side’, compared to 53% for the Labour Party, while amongst all 18-24 year olds, Labour leads the Conservatives by 54% to 29%. The research was presented at an event this past Monday, whose speakers included former Mayoral advisor Kulveer Ranger and AM Shaun Bailey – both of whom have declared their ambition to run as the party’s Mayoral candidate in 2020. On that note, is worth highlighting that Conservativehome has now published the full list of ten candidates longlisted for the party’s nomination to run for the London mayoralty. These ten candidates will now be interviewed, after which three finalists will be chosen as the shortlist put to a vote of Party members in London, with enough time to announce them at Conference at end-September. HDV LATESTHaringey Council’s new Labour administration has voted to cancel the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) programme, in so doing ending its £2bn joint venture with developer Lendlease. The cabinet, making its decision last night, appeared to be unswayed by letters sent to the council by Lendlease, or a deputation from Lendlease chief executive officer for international operations and Europe Dan Labbad. Labbad arrived with an offer of ‘flexibility’ that had already been outlined in letters sent, and a commitment to the council’s own agenda. Even had more favourable terms been agreed between Lendlease and Haringey, council leader Joseph Ejiofor had stated in cabinet papers published prior to last night that any new arrangement would not change the ‘fundamental approach’ that the new administration disagreed with – this position was maintained during the meeting. While Lendlease appeared willing to cede some authority to Haringey Council through more conducive HDV terms, the new administration upheld their position set out in this May’s manifesto, resolving instead to pursue a council-owned housing delivery model. Lendlease now has recourse to mount legal action and Haringey Council must pay the developer £520,275 to cover its 50% share of the costs incurred thus far by the project. The council has already spent £2.5m on the HDV, largely in the form of legal costs. THE BALLOTS BOTTOM LINEFrom today, any developer looking to undertake major estate regeneration schemes in the capital, with the benefit of City Hall funding, must now ballot residents. In a press release, the Mayor also states that he wants councils and housing associations to commit to balloting residents for schemes where his funding is not involved, and where he has no power to insist on one. Detailed guidance published by the GLA today underlines the requirements that investment partners such as developers, housing associations or local authorities must consider when balloting residents. WHAT ABOUT BALLOTS IN REAL TIME?As noted previously in LDN, London’s boroughs have greeted the advent of ballots for tenants affected by estate regeneration with mixed reactions. Developments on the eve of the policy’s formal launch have only served to confirm this. But in South London, another Labour-led council is evidently far more reluctant to implement ballots. Lambeth council will tonight be debating a motion by opposition councillors of the Green Party ‘to ballot residents on the Cressingham Gardens Estate, the Fenwick Estate and the Central Hill Estate’. But the council’s Labour group has submitted an amendment to the motion, which aims to delete the references to balloting residents on these estates. It replaces them with noncommittal statements of support for ‘placing residents at the heart of the decision-making process’ deferring the implementation of the estate regeneration ballots policy to a time when Labour is in control of Whitehall and ‘when councils would have the funding, flexibility and powers to build and refurbish social housing that is denied to them by this Conservative government’. The original motion and proposed amendments can all be found in full here. GREENWICH SAYS NOFurther along the south bank of the Thames, the 9 July meeting of Greenwich Council’s Planning Board struck down two major housing schemes. Rockwell’s Charlton Riverside plans would have delivered 771 new homes (35% affordable) in 11 buildings of up to 10 storeys, while JMH Group’s Harrow Manorway plans foresaw 272 new homes (40% affordable) in buildings of up to 17 storeys. Councillors cited a mismatch between Rockwell’s scheme and the Charlton Riverside masterplan, particularly as regards building height, the provision of family-sized homes and design. Other critics of the two developments who spoke at the committee session, including residents and former Council Leader Councillor Denise Hyland, took issue with their affordable homes offering, the impact on the area’s existing creative workspaces, the nuisance caused by construction crews, and the lack of needed transport infrastructure. Relevant reports by Estates Gazette and OnLondon highlight the fact that the schemes are situated in Opportunity Areas, have council officers’ recommendation for approval, and had been amended by developers in response to previous criticism. But it may not all be over for the plans as, considering the number homes they would deliver, they could be subject to a Mayoral call-in. But Sadiq, as is often the case, is caught between a rock and a hard place - should he side with Labour councillors and dissenting locals, or should he side with private sector developers, with a view to deliver his housing numbers? PEOPLE MOVES
GOVERNMENT ESTATES STRATEGYThe Cabinet Office has released its revised Government Estates Strategy, which according to Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden ‘marks a new chapter’ in how the government estate is managed. Building on the department’s previous strategy in 2014, which saw 180 government-owned buildings in central London reduced to 68, it now plans to consolidate the government estate down further to only 20 buildings by 2030. Many voices in the London development sector have speculated that the likely sale of some of these buildings could provide sizeable opportunities for redevelopment of some of the capital’s most iconic buildings. The former War Office building in Whitehall, one such building, was sold to UK-based Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group and Spanish firm OHL for £350m in 2014 as part of the government’s estate rationalisation. Elsewhere, the strategy also sketches out long-term plans to improve public realm around the Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square area by the end of this Parliament. BTR BOOMIt’s been yet another bumper week for the build-to-rent (BTR) sector. Oxford Properties, the property arm of a major Canadian pension fund, has teamed up with British developer Delancey to form a new BTR-focused co-investment platform called Delancey Oxford Residential (DOOR). The new joint venture, which has an initial capital commitment of £600m, will take ownership of a 39% stake in BTR developer Get Living (previously held by Delancey’s DV4 fund), alongside current shareholders Dutch APG (39%) and Qatari Diar (22%). Boosted by fresh funds, Get Living now aspires to develop more than 12,000 BTR homes in London and other major cities across the UK. Meanwhile, yet another major collaboration in the sector is likely in the works, following news that developer Telford Homes has hired Savills to help secure a dedicated investor partner for its BTR push in London. Finally, LCA client Quintain continues to charge ahead with a number of projects, most recently awarding Wates Construction a £161.5m contract to deliver 633 new homes at Wembley Park by 2020 – 347 of which will be BTR properties, to be managed by Quintain’s Tipi business. A MIXED BAGA new report, prepared by GVA, Architecture 00 and Real Urbanism, and supported by Centre for London, has assessed the capital’s capacity to provide flexible workspace alongside residential development in mixed-use schemes. Though new protections for strategic industrial land (SIL) are being introduced in the new draft London Plan, smaller scale industrial workspace (i.e. ‘maker space’) is being squeezed and is reflected by the continued fall in industrial land vacancy rates to below healthy levels. To remedy this, Places that Work makes a series of recommendations to position mixed-use development as a more central part of planning consideration. These include the establishment of a revolving Londonwide Commercial Space Investment Fund to directly support the provision of mixed development, and establishing area-based Local Economic Growth Companies that would purchase, hold and manage employment space for purposes of bringing forward mixed-use schemes. These schemes, the report argues, should be targeted towards Opportunity Areas (OAs) as outlined in the London Plan where there is the greatest potential for mixed-use development at scale. BUILDING COUNCIL HOMES FOR LONDONERS PROSPECTUSHaving published the Building Council Homes for Londoners’ programme’s funding prospectus in May, City Hall this month published an addendum to the original document, setting out how local authorities can bid for a slice of an additional £500 million in Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing headroom through the programme. While the overall cost-effectiveness of City Hall’s effort to spur council housebuilding remains to be seen, London Boroughs of all political stripes will undoubtedly be relieved that they have the opportunity to have access to funding and technical support that will enable them to take a more active role in the delivery of affordable homes – an eagerness reflected in an event held today by the Centre for London, on which you can find out more below. Through helping councils develop key in-house expertise, access more affordable housing grant, ring-fence Right to Buy receipts and manage additional HRA borrowing headroom, Building Council Homes for Londoners aims to support delivery of 10,000 new council housing starts by March 2022.
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