LDN Weekly – Issue 99 – 30 October 2019
YOU'RE JOKING...NOT ANOTHER ONE!
Following another rollercoaster week in Parliament – and crucially, the EU’s approval of a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020 – the Government and Opposition have agreed to hold a General Election on 12 December 2019. Results will, perhaps appropriately, be known on Friday the 13th…
No Images? Click here YOU'RE JOKING... NOT ANOTHER ONE!Following another rollercoaster week in Parliament – and crucially, the EU’s approval of a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020 – the Government and Opposition have agreed to hold a General Election on 12 December 2019. Results will, perhaps appropriately, be known on Friday the 13th… The Conservatives are still ahead in the polls nationally, but don’t be too hasty in placing your bets. With six weeks to go, every possible outcome is still on the table, from a Corbyn-led Labour government, to a coalition or minority administration, or even – you never know – a Liberal Democrat in No10. Don’t forget that aside from producing a new Government (and depending on its outcome) the election may yet trigger a second referendum and one or more party leadership contests. Prof Phil Cowley of Queen Mary University has written a very useful article for the Daily Mail, which highlights the main reasons why trying to predict the results won’t be easy. Today’s edition of LDN starts to unpick what the upcoming poll might mean for London, as well all the latest candidate selection news. Elections aside, we look at the Grenfell Inquiry’s first report, a major financing deal for beleaguered WeWork and plans for vast Thamesmead regeneration scheme. If you don't already, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and feel free to visit our website for more information on LCA’s team, services, and clients. ELECTION FEVERThere’s a lot we can’t possibly predict ahead of the General Election but there are things we do know. For example, at least 11 of London’s 73 seats will have a new MP, as the incumbents are stepping down. A further nine seats can be considered ‘marginal’ in the conventional sense (i.e. with a majority of 3,000 or less). We also think that around nine other seats are in play either as potential ‘three-way marginals’, or because of locally-specific reasons. So that puts around 40% of London constituencies on the watch list. Meanwhile, the election result could have significant repercussions for the London Mayoral and Assembly elections in May 2020, not least as a few Assembly candidates may well be MPs by then. Plus, having an election in December could negatively affect turnout in May, if it depletes the parties’ coffers, exhausts canvassers, and disillusions voters. And of course there is a major impact on local authorities, as campaigning and restrictions in place during the pre-election period will delay or complicate decision-making and other processes (including planning committees and public consultations). Meanwhile, the election kicks the Autumn Budget and Spending Review even further down the road, creating further uncertainty as regards councils’ long-term funding. LABOUR ON A WAR FOOTINGEmergency procedures for Labour’s parliamentary candidate selections have reportedly been implemented now that the election has been called. This means that any pending trigger ballots will be ‘paused’ and that any sitting MPs who have not yet been reselected will be ‘automatically readopted’, assuming the approval of the party’s national executive committee (NEC). It remains to be seen whether MPs ‘triggered’ in London – Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) and Kate Osamor (Edmonton) – will stand with the NEC’s blessing. LATEST SELECTIONSIn the days before the General Election was called, the following candidates had been confirmed:
Labour’s candidates for the two further vacant seats, Erith & Thamesmead (held by Labour’s Teresa Pearce, who is stepping down) and Streatham (held by former Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who will run in the Two Cities for the Lib Dems), are to be selected on 1 and 2 November respectively. GRENFELL INQUIRY REPORTThe Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 1 report, which aimed to ‘establish what happened on the night’ of the fire in June 2017, was published this morning. Its main focus is the London Fire Brigade (LFB)’s response and it asserts that the LFB was ‘gravely inadequate’ in its preparations, condemning the Brigade’s ‘stay put’ advice issued to the tower’s residents – stating that if it had been reversed earlier, more lives could have been saved. The report goes on to make a series of recommendations for improving the LFB’s response to future incidents of this kind, as well as for building safety more generally. LFB Commissioner Dany Cotton has welcomed ‘many of the recommendations’ made in the report, but has also said she is ‘disappointed at some of the criticism’ directed at LFB staff, as well as many of the report’s other findings. Both Cotton and the Fire Brigade Union have questioned why Phase 1 focused on firefighters’ actions on the night of the fire, rather than investigating the shortcomings of existing building regulations and fire safety policies. Phase 2 of the inquiry, which will begin in the new year, will focus on issues including Grenfell’s cladding. Meanwhile, the government has announced that Dame Judith Hackitt is to advise MHCLG on the creation of a new Building Safety Regulator. WEWORK WOBBLESA month after scuppering plans for an IPO, global flexible office space provider WeWork has secured a £7.4bn funding package from SoftBank. The Japanese conglomerate, which is already WeWork’s second-biggest shareholder after outgoing Chief Executive Adam Neumann, will now hold an 80% stake in the company – though it will not, apparently, hold a majority of voting rights. Aside from an almighty funding boost, the deal also sees SoftBank CEO Marcelo Claure take over as WeWork’s Executive Chairman and heralds a number of other leadership and governance changes. The announcement offers much reassurance to WeWork’s landlords and clients around the world and especially in London, where the company's 2.6m+ sq ft under lease across 52 buildings makes it the city’s single biggest flexible workspace provider and (in central London specifically) the largest office space occupier after the Government. THAMESMEAD JVHousing association Peabody and developer Lendlease have announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture to deliver the £8bn regeneration scheme in Thamesmead. The 250-acre site in question straddles the Greenwich-Bexley boundary and is currently home to 45,000 people. The partnership plans to build 11,500 homes on the site as well as new cultural, community and commercial spaces, making it the single largest development Peabody has undertaken in its 157-year history. Of course, the project still has a way to go; the plans foresee a 30-year implementation period and will require multiple planning consents, as well as the construction of extensive new infrastructure. The project’s backers have underlined that a new cross-river extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead, which remains unfunded, is ‘critical in unlocking the full ambition of the scheme’. Furthermore, the scheme will have to navigate the significant complexity of estate regeneration, in addition to the challenges inherent in development along 1.5 miles of the River Thames. NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING LATESTThe South Bank & Waterloo Neighbourhood Plan was subject to a local referendum on 24 October, receiving a positive vote, with 92% of residents who voted approving the plan (on an 11% turnout), while 91% of businesses voted in favour (on a turnout of 43%). While mostly located within the London Borough of Lambeth, the area in question also includes a small portion of Southwark and the positive vote for the plan means that both Councils will have to take its policies into account when making planning decisions for developments within its boundaries. This is the 14th ‘made’ – or adopted – neighbourhood plan in London. The next to go to referendum is the Mayfair Neighbourhood Plan, tomorrow! All of London’s ‘made’ neighbourhood plans, as well as dozens of other plans at various stages in their development, can be found on Neighbourhood Planners.London’s terrific map and list. JENRICK AND MCVEY ON THE MOVEIt’s been a busy week at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Secretary of State Robert Jenrick faced the scrutiny of the HCLG Committee for the first (and perhaps the last?) time this past Monday, facing questions about everything from housing delivery to the impact of Brexit on local councils. He also launched a new Centre for Policy Studies report on ‘tackling Britain's geographical inequalities’; spoke at a Policy Exchange / Create Streets event on the new National Design Guide; announced a new £1.35m fund for ‘pocket parks’; and proclaimed a new £10m fund to help up to ten councils develop proposals for new towns ‘on the scale of Canary Wharf or Milton Keynes’. Meanwhile, Housing Minister Esther McVey has spent the week plugging her plans for a modular construction-enabled, Northern England-centred ‘Green Housing Revolution’. The Ministry has also launched a consultation on development corporation reform, as well as responded to the HCLG Committee’s report on local government finance and the 2019 Spending Review. Finally, housing agency Homes England has agreed funding deals worth £38.2m with six local authorities to speed up the construction of at least 2,072 homes across 13 sites. FOR A LIVING WAGEOver the last few days, members of the United Voices of the World trade union from across several organisations have been on strike. The union represents mostly female migrant workers who are demanding they be paid the London Living Wage, as well as benefit from sick pay and annual leave in line with in-house staff in their respective places of employment. Industrial action took place (or is currently underway) at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington as well as in the Royal Parks and the University of Greenwich. REPORTS
|