LDN Weekly – Issue 302 – 7 February 2024 – The South Bank Show

Dear Reader,

The Secretary of State’s approval this week of plans for the redevelopment of the former ITV Studios on the South Bank is the latest in a string of interventions by the Government in London’s built environment.

As we wait for the outcome of the Government-commissioned ‘review’ of the London Plan, it is worth looking back at the Government’s other involvements in the capital’s planning process. While recent examples, such as M&S Oxford Street and the MSG Sphere, have attracted a significant amount of attention, there are many more instances in which the Secretary of State has intervened to make the final decision on planning applications.

The fact that there have been nine housing secretaries since 2010 somewhat complicates matters. Gove has actually only called-in three applications himself: the Sphere, M&S and the Syon Lane development in Hounslow. Meanwhile, Greg Clark, who took up the role for two months amid the downfall of Boris Johnson (and following the firing of Gove), managed to call-in two schemes during his short-lived stint. Robert Jenrick called-in six during his two-year tenure.

The revolving door of housing secretaries means that, particularly recently, very few applications have been both called-in and decided by the same person, which also means that it is hard to decipher any particular pattern in the decision-making process. In the called-in applications that have been decided since 2021, the Government has only overturned the local planning authority’s decision in three of 10 cases (M&S, 8 Albert Embankment and the Holocaust Memorial). However, the call-in process is often lengthy and can delay projects for months or even, in some cases, years.

As we talk to clients and associates about the upcoming elections, we are increasingly being asked about how Labour in charge at both the national level and at City Hall (as is currently being projected by the polls) will alter the government’s approach to the capital. We will be studying this closely, using our insights to support our clients and associates, but if Labour is to achieve its aim of delivering 1.5m new homes in five years, it could be that a prospective Secretary of State Angela Rayner makes less use of her call-in powers to slow down or even stop development and is on the side of the ‘builders not the blockers’.

As it currently stands, there are no planning applications to be determined by the Secretary of State. With the General Election only months away and the added complications brought about by the restrictions of the pre-election period, as well as the possibility of a new government finding its feet for a few months, could we see developers postponing bringing forward major schemes in the next few months to avoid them being called-in and delayed even further?

Emily Clinton, Account Manager, Insight
ejc@londoncommunications.co.uk

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LONDON POLITICS ROUNDUP

A multi-horse race: with 85 days to go until Londoners elect their next Mayor, it’s easy to focus on it as purely a two horse race, Labour v Tory battle. But there is a growing list of other candidates, and with a change in the voting system to first past the post this time around, how many votes other parties pick up could still be a deciding factor in who wins.

Orange squash: While there’s not been a Mayoral poll since the autumn, the Lib Dems are currently thought to be hovering around 10% in the race for City Hall. So it is timely that our friends over at OnLondon have interviewed Lib Dem candidate Rob Blackie.

The future’s orange: Blackie’s career is very varied, including political campaigning, marketing, spin, working in overseas aid and, more recently, taking on Putin. We find Blackie backs building new garden cities, improving public transport in outer London, is a critic of Khan’s fares freeze, is a liberal when it comes to some drugs and favours much more decentralisation of power.

Orange on red: Khan’s attempts to woo Green and Lib Dem voters hasn’t phased Blackie, who this week attacked the Mayor’s progress on achieving his 2030 net zero target.

Damming praise: the latest challenger entering the race is Serge Crowbolder, who favours rent controls, building homes over the top of the North Circular Road and damming the Thames to create a freshwater lake. Expect more runners and riders to throw their hat in the ring over the coming weeks. 

Ready for Rishi Susan: reports suggest that Tory Head Office’s disquiet at Susan Hall’s campaign for Mayor has led to the drafting in of the company that ran the 2022 Ready for Rishi campaign. 

In Khan’s world: Sadiq Khan has been accused of spending £150m on what his opponents claim is technology to implement pay-per-mile road user charging, has had his knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority who upheld complaints that TfL and City Hall ads on ULEZ expansion were ‘misleading’, and it has emerged that the New Year’s Eve fireworks (which Susan Hall branded an “egotistical fireworks display”) cost nearly £4m (with £1.75m of this recovered through ticket revenue).

Planned silence: Still nothing yet on Michael Gove’s report on the London Plan which has been ‘in his in-tray’ for a few weeks now.

Parisian springtime: over the Channel, long time Khan ally Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo won a vote in favour of tripling parking costs for SUVs. Khan left open the prospect of something similar here in London. Elsewhere, legislation to regulate pedicabs has reached the 3^rd Reading stage in the Lords. For one of LDN’s contributors nearly runover by a pink tinsel-covered, ABBA-blaring pedicab on Saturday, it can’t come soon enough.

Marching to the polls: Lewisham voters elect their new Mayor on 7 March. While holding the election on the same day as the London Mayoral contest would likely have saved money, it is thought the added complications of verifying Lewisham’s ballots might have slowed down the whole London-wide result.

A little local housing difficulty: in neighbouring Southwark, Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Darren Merrill resigned, replaced by Cllr Sarah King. Recent reports point to growing financial challenges with the council’s Housing Revenue Account.

TIME'S UP FOR THE TOURIST TAX?

Final stretch? After months of intense lobbying from retail, visitor and hospitality businesses, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has indicated that VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors could be reinstated.

Proper job: In a letter to Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown, Conservative MP and leader of the Scrap the Tourist Tax Campaign, Hunt confirmed that he has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility to analyse the effects of reintroducing VAT-free shopping on the public purse. Early reported estimates suggest that the Exchequer would take a £2bn hit from tourists no longer paying VAT.

In case you missed it: The so-called ‘tourist tax’ was introduced from January 2021 when former Chancellor Rishi Sunak withdrew VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors, denying tourists the right to claim back any VAT they had spent while perusing the shops in Britain. According to the Treasury’s Spending Review, the move could save £460m by 2025.

Don’t you dare: The decision to scrap the scheme outraged the retail and tourist economy, with senior CEOs warning of job losses and a hit on economic growth. The Association of International Retail warned that it would be ‘devastating’ for tourism, particularly when the sector was still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flight of fancy: London Heathrow Airport even went as far as launching an ultimately unsuccessful judicial review into the decision, claiming that the Treasury had not taken international trade law into consideration.

Richie Rishi: At a Business Connect conference in April last year, Chair of Burberry Gerry Murphy took his frustration out at the removal of the tourist tax direct with the Prime Minister. He accused him of scoring a ‘spectacular own goal’ in his decision, arguing that it made the UK the ‘least attractive’ shopping destination in Europe.

Qualms persist: A new campaign from the British Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Business (FSB) and Heathrow Airport launched earlier this week (and ahead of the Chancellor’s announced review) said the ‘hugely detrimental impact’ of the tourist tax was depriving the retail sector of £1.5bn a year. Reintroducing tax free shopping could be a £10bn boost to the economy at large, the campaign argues.

Spring in their step: So far, reaction to Hunt’s review from the retail and visitor economy has been, understandably, very positive. The FSB said that reintroducing VAT-free shopping would be like ‘switching on a huge neon welcome sign’ for British business. The results of the OBR’s review will be unveiled at the Chancellor’s Spring Budget on 6 March.

• Leading housebuilders Barratt Developments and Redrow have announced a merger worth £2.5bn to create the UK’s largest housing developer. The two developers, who will trade as Barratt Redrow, have an aggregate revenue of £7.4bn as of the end of 2023, with a combined total of 22,642 completed new build homes. 
  
  
• Secretary of State Michael Gove has granted permission for the redevelopment of the former ITV Studios building on the South Bank. The plans, by CO-RE and Mitsubishi Estate, were granted permission by Lambeth Council in March 2022 but have faced opposition from residents groups and politicians due to height and impact on heritage and views. The developer proposes demolishing the existing building and delivering two new buildings of 25 and 14 storeys, providing 79,000 sqm of office and associated commercial space, 7,000 sqm of cultural space, and up to 4,000 sqm of space for retail and hospitality.
  
  
• Reselton’s £1.5bn plans for the redevelopment of the Stag Brewery site in Richmond have received planning consent. The developer proposes the delivery of a 1,068-home scheme (only 7.5% affordable) comprised of 21 residential buildings between three and nine storeys, plus a new secondary school, care home, 20-30 retail and leisure units and around nine acres of green space. The site’s redevelopment has had a controversial history, with initial plans previously being approved in January 2020 but later called in and refused by the Mayor of London in 2021 due to a lack of affordable housing (17.5%). Different revised plans with reduced affordable housing (7.5%) were approved in July 2023 but then redesigned to accommodate second staircases. The plans will now be referred to both the Mayor of London and Secretary of State for examination.
  
  
• Landsec and Places for London have received planning permission for a new office development at Liberty of Southwark on Bankside. The eight-storey building will contain 190,000 sq ft of sustainable office space along with a new community hub and 34 new homes (50% affordable). The plans were previously consented in 2021 before changes were made following the discovery of Roman artifacts and to comply with new regulations on second staircases.
  
  
• Henley Investment Management’s plans to deliver a five to 17-storey ‘beds and sheds’ scheme at the Albert & Swedish Wharf have been recommended for approval by Hammersmith and Fulham Council planning officers, ahead of its committee hearing on 13 February. The proposals include the demolition of the current buildings to build 285 homes (30% affordable), 55,000 sq ft of logistics space at ground floor level, and a new restaurant. The scheme has been opposed by local Conservative MP, Greg Hands, and the Fulham Society. 

• Cllr Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for Housing at Southwark Council, has resigned his role to reportedly ‘spend more time’ with family. Planning Committee member and ward councillor for Champion Hill, Cllr Sarah King, is his replacement.
  
  
• Rachele Caltagirone has been appointed as Head of Placemaking at the Olympia Estate.
  
  
• Kier Group has appointed David Bridges as Managing Director within the Kier Property development arm. Bridges rejoins Kier after a stint as Director and interim Chief Investment Officer at Homes England since January 2023.
  
  
• Native Land has appointed Chris Fossick as a new non-executive Director on the Board. Fossick was former Chief Executive of JLL’s South East Asia business for over 17 years.
  
  
• Wates has appointed Rosie Toogood as new Chief Supply Chain and Quality Officer, joining from Legal & General Modular Homes where she was CEO until the closure of the company’s flagship modular factory in Yorkshire in May 2023.
  
  
• UKHospitality has appointed Allen Simpson as Deputy Chief Executive. Simpson joins from London & Partners where he led as Executive Director since 2018.

Hot off the press: Conservative MP for Cites of London and Westminster, Nickie Aiken, has confirmed today she won’t contest the seat at the forthcoming General Election. Aiken is a former leader of Westminster City Council and has only been the MP since 2019. Her majority last time was 3,953, leaving the seat looking vulnerable on current polling.

Changing of the guard: with Aiken’s news today, this makes it ten sitting MPs in the capital announcing they won’t be standing again. Just last Friday, Tory MP Bob Neill, who holds quite the record of having been a councillor, member of the GLC, London Assembly member and an MP, announced he won’t be contesting his seat in order to look after his wife as she recovers from a stroke.

Blue exodus: Other Tories standing down are Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon, first elected 2005), Matthew Offord (Hendon, first elected 2010) and Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green, first elected 2010). Freer cited death threats and fears for his and his partner’s safety as factors in his decision. Joining them is former Tory (and now independent) MP Bob Stewart (Beckenham, first elected 2010). It’s no wonder that Tory Party HQ is pleading with MPs standing down to stagger their announcements.

Marginal gains: with Offord, Freer and Hammond all in seats Labour will be hoping to capture (with a new Beckenham & Penge seat also favouring Labour), the departure of the sitting MPs adds more spice to those contests. And with an election still potentially 11 months away, don’t rule out more MPs deciding to call it a day. 

Reds out the door: Three London Labour stalwart women – with 99 years in Parliament between them – aren’t seeking re-election either: Margaret Hodge (Barking, first elected 1994), Karen Buck (Westminster North, first elected 1997) and Harriet Harman (Peckham and Camberwell, first elected 1982). Also not running next time is Jon Cruddas (Dagenham and Rainham, first elected 2001).

Queens Park Changers: Buck not standing also leaves vacant the plum Labour candidacy in the new Queens Park and Maida Vale constituency (notional Labour majority, 18,874). LDN expects this to be quite the contest and we’ll be keeping an eye on the rumoured candidates.

CITY PLAN 2040

One step closer: Last week, the City of London Corporation Planning and Transportation Committee voted to approve the draft City Plan 2040, marking the clearing of the first hurdle for the Corporation’s local plan. Included in the plan are aims to deliver 1.2m sqm of additional office floorspace in the City by 2040 and build upon the ‘Destination City’ vision to make the Square Mile a 7 days a week culture and leisure destination.

Sky high: the Plan identifies three ‘areas of change’ for new development, the City Cluster, Fleet Street and Liverpool Street. It also sets out that tall buildings should only be delivered in the City Cluster (max. 300m tall) and in the Fleet Street area (max. 90m). It also states that tall buildings must be of an ‘exemplar’ architectural standard and provide a ‘high quality experience’ at ground level.

Net zero: in line with the City’s previously announced plans to achieve net zero by 2040, the plan reiterates the City’s commitment to a ‘retrofit first’ approach to development. The plan states that at site appraisal stage, the whole lifecycle carbon of different options for the site should be assessed, that the viability of retrofit must be assessed for all schemes and that any new buildings must be delivered to a minimum of BREEAM ‘excellent’ and five-star NABERS rating.

Next steps: the plan now needs to be approved by the City’s Policy and Resources Committee and the Court of Common Council before it can go out for public consultation in the Spring and then sent to the Secretary of State later in the year.

WE RECOMMEND

• The News Agents podcast’s episode on the safety of MPs.
• Amidst reports about divisions over its green investment pledge, the New Statesman asks who runs the Labour Party
• Why a new building on Union Street is stopping people in their tracks.
• Boston Consulting Group get their teeth into the UK’s difficulties with building major infrastructure projects.
• Meet the City professionals vying to become MPs
• Interviews with the new leaders of two of the city’s major cultural institutions – the British Museum and the South Bank Centre.
• Public Accounts Committee slams government over HS2 and lack of plausible plan for Euston link.
• What are the 10 coolest postcodes to move to in 2024 (with Clapham deemed cool…).

WHAT CAN THE UK LEARN ABOUT FLEXIBLE LAB SPACE FROM EUROPE?

Our client Baumschlager Erbele Architekten is featured in BE News this week. Director Daniel Pöhner comments on the remarkable growth of the life sciences industry in France and the rest of Europe over the past five years, with a focus on flexible lab spaces being key to its success.

He speaks about the practice’s innovative 2226 concept that they have used to design these types of spaces, and how a design approach that allows for adaptability is imperative in such a fluctuating industry. Read the full article here. 

LUNAR NEW YEAR

LCA has been promoting the Lunar New Year celebrations at Greenwich Peninsula.

This Saturday 10 February kicks off 14 days of celebrations to welcome in the most auspicious of years – the Year of the Dragon!

Events include hands-on workshops exploring Chinese crafts and designs such as ceramic pendant sculpting, woodblock painting and Chinese calligraphy, artist Nicole Chui’s vibrant contemporary embroidery installation, and a rhythmic traditional Dragon Dance – and you can read all about them on Time Out, Country and Townhouse, This is Money and News Shopper Series.

Photo courtesy of Hannah Lim

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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