LDN Weekly – Issue 69 – 20 March 2019
CONNECTIONS, SELECTIONS, ELECTIONS
A first look at the new TfL budget and Crossrail update, progress on Enfield’s £6bn Meridian Water regeneration scheme and a new resi deal for Westfield in Stratford are but a few of this week’s big London stories covered below.
No Images? Click here CONNECTIONS, SELECTIONS, ELECTIONSA first look at the new TfL budget and Crossrail update, progress on Enfield’s £6bn Meridian Water regeneration scheme and a new resi deal for Westfield in Stratford are but a few of this week’s big London stories covered below. There’s also a politics update for those following the London Assembly, news of recent and upcoming by-elections and a cultural journey across the capital. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback and do follow us on Twitter and Instagram if you don’t already. Also, feel free to visit our website for more information on LCA’s team, services, and clients. BUS CONNECTIONSAfter months of speculation, it has been confirmed that Victoria Coach Station will not be moving to Royal Oak station in Bayswater. Both local residents and councillors had opposed the proposal, claiming the move would increase congestion and pollution in an area with multiple schools. The decision was confirmed in a letter from Sadiq to local politicians Karen Buck MP, Assembly Member Tony Devenish and Westminster councillors, in which the Mayor explained that following investigation, it became apparent that the Royal Oak site ‘presented significant challenges’ in terms of its ‘day to day’ and ‘viability’. TfL is now understood to be refocusing its efforts on other locations and options for the coach station and looking at ‘alternative mixed-use proposals’ for the Royal Oak site. 100% AFFORDABLE AT MERIDIAN WATEREnfield Council (an LCA client) is now looking for partners to bring forward the first 100% affordable housing scheme at Meridian Water, alongside new workspaces. The procurement for the site, known as Meridian Two, was launched at an event with the Council Leader, Nesil Caliskan, this morning. It is the second Meridian Water site to be procured using the Greater London Authority’s Development Panel 2 and will see 200-250 new affordable homes and workspaces built. 2020 SELECTIONSAs reported previously, left-of-centre candidates now dominate the London Labour Regional Board. More recent reports suggest that the regional candidate selection committee is now similarly dominated by left-leaning members. Meanwhile, the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) has also voted to change the rules for selecting Assembly candidates. The impact of this is that that sitting Labour AMs (both Londonwide and constituency) may find it harder to secure re-selection. According to media reports, unnamed ‘City Hall sources’ are concerned that leftist firebrands could unseat experienced, ‘moderate’ Labour AMs and demand a radical election manifesto. Sadiq, himself a ‘moderate’, has largely managed to stay above Labour’s internal strife to date but these latest developments could make that harder, especially when it comes to policy development for 2020-2024. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are gradually advancing with their own selections for London Assembly posts. Neil Garratt was selected in late February to contest the Croydon and Sutton constituency (which will be vacated by Steve O’Connell when he steps down this May) and Gregory Stafford has this week been selected as the party’s candidate for the Ealing & Hillingdon constituency (which is currently held by Labour’s Dr Onkar Sahota). Stafford is currently a Tory Councillor for Hanger Hill and Leader of the Opposition on Ealing Council. BY-ELECTIONS
RESIGNATIONS
TfL BUDGET ALLOCATIONSEarlier today, TfL published the Agenda and Papers for its next Board Meeting, which is to take place on Wednesday 27 March. Crucially, this includes TfL’s draft Budget for 2019/20 and a Crossrail update. TfL’s press release is upbeat, highlighting progress towards ‘breaking even’ in 2022/23 and triumphantly announcing that ‘tight financial management’ means that it will ‘halve our projected operating deficit to £500m for 2018/19’. But the documents actually underline TfL and City Hall’s concerns about TfL’s finances, particularly in connection to the financial impact of Crossrail’s delayed delivery, sustained cuts to TfL’s operational funding from the Government and an uncertain economic environment. The LCA team is still working its way through the budget and the rest of the 254-page pack, so for the time being, we leave you with a headline assessment by the London School of Economics’ Professor Tony Travers, as cited by the BBC earlier today: ‘Behind the upbeat headlines, TfL finances are still on a knife edge.’ GLA LOAN QUESTIONEDThe Mayor has taken flak in the press over a decision to extend a £21.8m loan from the Homes for Londoners Land Fund to American property developer Anthology to build 250+ homes on a former NHS site in Lambeth. City AM cites Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat AM, as saying that ‘allowing huge publicly funded loans to be made to private developers with so little public scrutiny is a recipe for future disasters’. The newspaper also cites an anonymous source as expressing unspecified doubts about the developer’s affordable housing offer (and claiming there is ‘tension between Lambeth Council and the developer’). City AM also pointedly underlines that the firm has not yet submitted a planning application for its scheme. However, the same article explains that this is a repayable loan – not a grant – which furthermore comes with various conditions, including but not limited to a 50% affordable homes offer. For more details, see the actual decision published back in December here. POTENTIAL HOME OFFICE LOCATIONSCroydon’s Whitgift Shopping Centre may become the headquarters of the Home Office, under plans to relocate the government department to the borough and continue to move civil servants from central London. However the redevelopment of the shopping centre, set to become Westfield Croydon, has been delayed and according to the developer is under review. If this location is selected, then owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) will have to revise their current plans for 500,000 sq ft of retail space and 600 new homes. Adaptation of the site for the Home Office would require a ‘bespoke’ design, particularly given the requirement that it include an immigration centre. The department currently has an office in Croydon, the lease for which expires in 2024, and is reportedly in talks with other landowners in the borough regarding the potential pre-let of office schemes. WESTFIELD STRATFORD RESIMeanwhile, URW is set to realise its first foray into housing, announcing the signing of a conditional agreement with pension fund PSP Investments and developer QuadReal Property Group. This will enable it to proceed with the construction of a £670m, 1,200-home build to rent development next to its Stratford shopping centre. The scheme, called Cherry Park Development, will also include a gym and pool as well as workspace and public areas. PSP and QuadReal will each take a 37.5% share in the Cherry Park Partnership, while URW will retain a 25% share and act as the development and asset manager. The project has already received planning approval from the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and construction is expected to start later this year, with the development due to be completed after 2023. SLIPPED IN WITH THE SPRING STATEMENTWe noted in last week’s edition that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) made several key announcements in a Written Ministerial Statement issued almost at the same time as the Chancellor’s Spring Statement. In brief, these include:
Meanwhile, MHCLG has also announced that Councils across England will get ‘an immediate cash boost from a £9.75m fund’ to support a range of ‘locally-led high street spring clean’ campaigns. This mini-boost will help them to buy litter pickers and gloves, provide training for residents on how to remove graffiti or tackle fly-tipping, as well as organise events to encourage participation by volunteers. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERYIt has been confirmed that the Sackler Trust is to withdraw its £1m donation for the refurbishment of the National Portrait Gallery. This comes after photographer Nan Goldin had threatened to withdraw an exhibition of her work in protest over allegations concerning the Trust’s connections to the ongoing ‘opioid crisis’ in the US. In a joint statement, the Trust and the Gallery said that if it were to have gone ahead, the donation may have worked to ‘deflect’ the Gallery from its ‘important’ work. REPORTS
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