LDN Weekly – Issue 81 – 12 June 2019
LONDON AND BEYOND
It is almost two years since the Grenfell Tower tragedy and we look at what has happened since then. Meanwhile, new Mayoral initiatives to support the high street, boost the night-time economy, and make London’s streets safer and air cleaner offer hope that City Hall is on the ball. But lagging performance at the OPDC is generating concern.
No Images? Click here LONDON AND BEYONDIt is almost two years since the Grenfell Tower tragedy and we look at what has happened since then. Meanwhile, new Mayoral initiatives to support the high street, boost the night-time economy, and make London’s streets safer and air cleaner offer hope that City Hall is on the ball. But lagging performance at the OPDC is generating concern.Other London news covered by today’s edition of LDN spans property deals on the Thames riverside, a fire and a planning refusal in the East, as well as developer-funded free school meals in the West. But we also look further afield, examining challenges to Guildford’s new Local Plan and pondering the implications of Power Up the North. If you don’t already, do follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Also, feel free to visit our website for more information on LCA’s team, services, and clients. (ALMOST) TWO YEARS ONIt is almost two years on from the Grenfell tragedy which claimed 72 lives and began a period of mourning and intense circumspection from all of the organisations and sectors involved. This period is by no means over, in fact it has barely started with a number of inquiries and reviews in train, including the Hackitt review. Meanwhile, a fire at a block of flats in Barking has served as a reminder that there is still work to be done when it comes to fire safety and building regulations. The Barking fire is understood to have destroyed 20 flats and damaged a further 10. While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, many reports have attributed its rapid spread to the building’s timber balconies. Developers, architects and regulators alike will surely be considering the fire’s implications for fire safety measures in timber-clad building designs. In an interview with LBC, Conservative London Assembly Member and local resident Andrew Boff has said he was at the scene and participated in efforts to alert the building’s occupants – and the AM asserts that he did not hear any fire alarms go off during the blaze. BROKENSHIRE PUTS HIS FOOT DOWNThe Secretary of State, James Brokenshire has rejected plans for a mixed-use development in Tower Hamlets. The proposals by Sainsbury’s are for the replacement of the existing supermarket and car park with a new store, learning facility, workspace, and almost 500 homes. The plans had been recommended for refusal by Tower Hamlets planning officers, amended and then resubmitted on several occasions. The planners’ concerns had focused on the affordable housing offer, impact on local landmarks, and issues with day/sun light for surrounding properties. After the borough failed to make a decision on the application within the statutory time limit, Sainsbury’s launched an appeal and the Planning Inspector subsequently recommended the plans’ approval. Brokenshire notably agreed with the Inspector that the 65 affordable homes on the site (13.8%) would make ‘significant contribution to the Borough’s needs’ and was the ‘maximum reasonable amount’ to be delivered there. However, he has refused the plans on the basis of their day/sun light impact and their effect on local heritage assets. OPDC LATESTThe Old Oak Park and Park Royal Development Corporation’s (OPDC) leadership was grilled by the London Assembly’s Budget & Performance Committee yesterday. The session confirmed that the OPDC’s plans to help deliver new infrastructure, homes and jobs across a 650 hectare site in north-west London over the next two decades remain precarious. It was freely admitted by Chair Liz Peace that the OPDC faces a “very challenging point in [its] history” and still needs to fulfil several conditions before it can access a critical £250m grant by the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF). These conditions include the approval of the OPDC’s draft Local Plan and further financial commitments by the Mayor, neither of which are certain. Liz Peace also explained that the organisation faces an interim funding gap and so remains dependent on additional GLA funding. Beyond its financial troubles, the OPDC’s land assembly efforts (for which about half the HIF funds are earmarked) remain mired in complex negotiations and disputes with the area’s major landowners. One of these is Cargiant – an LCA client – which is challenging the viability of the Corporation’s draft Local Plan. Finally, it was also revealed that any major delay to or scrapping of HS2 itself would challenge the very foundations on which the regeneration is based. SAVING LONDON'S HIGH STREETSThe Mayor is making available £20m in the third round of his Good Growth Fund to ‘improve town centres and high streets’. Sadiq has also announced the creation of a pilot Night Time Enterprise Zone (NEZ) in an attempt to boost high streets after-hours offer. City Hall’s night-time economy initiative was announced alongside plans for a new Safer Sounds Partnership, which will bring together venue operators, event organisers, the police and councils to ‘make it easier for organisers to put on live events and safer for music fans by promoting high standards and offering support and training’. To put this in context, research conducted by Springboard has shown that May 2019 marked the most severe fall in the number of customers on high streets in six years across the UK. This is in comparison to a good May last year (the sun was out then for starters) but it still isn’t a pretty picture as borne out by the fact that many national retail and hospitality groups are facing tough times. The Mayor’s support will therefore be warmly welcomed by businesses in Londoners – but will it be enough? CLEANER, GREENER, SLOWER - SORRY, WHAT?Sadiq has also released £6m from his Air Quality Fund to establish four new Low Emission Neighbourhoods (LENs) and 11 other projects across London’s boroughs. One such project is Healthy Streets Everyday which is aiming to deliver 250 car free and pedestrianisation initiatives across 16 boroughs over three years. TfL has meanwhile launched a consultation on proposals to reduce the speed limit on roads within the Congestion Zone to 20mph, a measure which primarily aims to help achieve the Mayor’s Vision Zero initiative to tackle road accidents, injuries and deaths. The consultation will run until 10 July – and the measure could be implemented as soon as May 2020. ITV DEAL FLOPS?According to reports in the property press, the sale of ITV’s London Television Centre to Allied London has ‘collapsed’ and as of writing, no reason has been given for the deal’s failure. Knight Frank launched the sale in January, with an initial asking price in the region of £150m. ITV had previously intended to redevelop the site itself, securing planning consent for a new studio building as well as a residential tower. However, they decided to sell up last October. MEANWHILE IN LIB DEM COUNTRYThe Liberal Democrats are the latest party to have revealed their ‘super-constituency’ candidates for next year’s London Assembly elections. The candidates include current Leader of Richmond Council Gareth Roberts, who will stand for the South West seat and Haringey Councillor Dawn Barnes, for the Enfield & Haringey seat. If the party’s good performance at the European Elections can be replicated next May, then it may well be that Caroline Pidgeon will have some company on the Assembly in 2020. In the meantime, the party is set to elect its new national leader in the coming months. In a much less competitive (and by far more courteous) leadership election than that of their Conservative counterparts, MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson is competing against London MP for Kingston and Surbiton Sir Ed Davey, following the resignation of Vince Cable MP. Nominations closed on 7 June and members will be voting between 1 and 23 July. The new leader will be announced on the last day of the vote and is expected to take over immediately. SHOULD DEVELOPERS PAY FOR SCHOOL MEALS?Hammersmith and Fulham has ‘declared war on food poverty’ and committed to providing a free breakfast to every primary school pupil in the borough – roughly 10,000 children – starting this September. H&F has further announced a four year pilot scheme to offer the 700 students of two secondary schools free lunches, starting in January 2020. It is unclear how much these initiatives will cost as a whole but according to the council’s own press release, ‘the scheme will be paid for entirely by community contributions won by the council taking a tough approach in negotiations with property developers.’ The Council has further told reporters that ‘about £643m has been raised from property developers since 2014.’ GUILDFORD LOCAL PLAN LATESTGuildford Borough Council’s new Local Plan is facing no less than three legal challenges, all of which take aim at its designation of green belt sites as appropriate for residential development. The applications for judicial review of the Plan lodged at the High Court come from two Parish Councils (Compton and Ockham) and a Guildford resident – all represented by the same law firm. The Council hastily adopted the Plan at an emergency council meeting held barely a week before the ruling Conservatives were roundly defeated at May’s local elections. The council is now run by a coalition of Liberal Democrats and several local independent groups. Guildford’s new Liberal Democrat Leader and Lead Councillor for Planning have responded cautiously to news of the court challenges and it is clear that the borough is in a bit of a pickle: While Leader Caroline Reaves had voted in favour of the Plan, many of her party colleagues had voted against it and her cabinet includes members of independent groups which had campaigned furiously against the Plan’s adoption. The Plan’s challengers are now awaiting a preliminary High Court ruling on whether they have an arguable case (and a date for a subsequent full hearing). FURTHER AFIELDLast week, a potent new ‘Power up the North’ campaign was launched by more than 33 newspapers and websites across northern England, with the aim of narrowing the ‘North-South divide’. Newcastle’s ChronicleLive railed against the North being ‘treated as the ‘poor relation’ for too long’ and the Manchester Evening News warned that ‘every day of dither and delay risks leaving the north at an even greater disadvantage.’ Indeed, there is much evidence of under-investment in England’s northern cities and counties. Only a couple of weeks ago, the UK2070 Commission, led by Lord Kerslake, published a report calling for drastic action to ‘tackle regional inequality.’ Northerners do well to stand up and demand more of national government. But regional and local government in the capital should also take heed; much of the rhetoric surrounding the divide goes beyond criticism of central government policy and strays into disparaging London and the wider South-East. Both the Chronicle and Evening News, cited above, accuse politicians of ‘putting London and the South-East’s interests first.’ London’s politicians will do well to keep this in mind when making the case for the capital’s needs – and avoid being drawn into the fallacy of a zero-sum, ‘us-versus-them’ game. BIRTHDAY HONOURS AND OTHER PEOPLE MOVESThe Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2019, which recognises the achievements of 1,073 ‘extraordinary people’ across the UK, was announced last week. We noticed a number of prominent Londoners on the list. You may find a sample of these below. Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Knighthood
CBE
OBE
MBE
In other People Moves:
UPCOMING BY-ELECTIONSSeveral council ward by-elections are set to take place across London over the summer.
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