LDN Weekly – Issue 303 – 15 February 2024 – Building with Love

Dear Reader,

The late Benjamin Zephaniah described Londoners as ‘melting into one’ from the unique blend of cultures, languages and perspectives. But looking out from the eighth floor of a central London office building, any sense of an individual’s place in all this ebbs away at the sheer enormity of the capital’s skyline.

Demographic change is not new to London, but in recent years it has taken on a new form. And it has very real consequences for public policy and how the city is run.

The city’s stark health challenges were revealed in a recent report from the Standard, which showed that men born in Newham between 2020 and 2022 will live an average of 20 months less than in those born between 2011 and 2013. It’s the same average for women born in Barking and Dagenham across the same period.

This is a political problem as much as it is personal. Lower life expectancy is the product of many factors, including socio-economic factors like poverty, poor housing and inequality.

The city’s demographics are also seeing some remarkable falls in inner London’s school-age population. In 2023, Hackney and Lambeth councils both announced the closure of schools where student headcount was falling. Some London boroughs are predicted to see the number of primary school-aged students drop by 10% or more by 2028 – which really isn’t that far away.

Further east, demographic change is a factor in the financial crisis at Havering Council. Like many other local councils, the cost of adult and children’s social care has skyrocketed to form such a major part of council budgets that leaders are facing very difficult choices. For Havering, the growing number of new families and young people in the borough has led to the Department for Education allocating nearly 60% of all London’s basic-need capital funding to Havering for 2025-26.

We’re also seeing some stark differences between age groups in what matters most. The latest polling from YouGov on the most important issues to Londoners sees people aged 18-24 most concerned about the economy, health and housing; while older voters over 65 place immigration, health and the economy as their top priorities. 

The built environment interacts with these changes every day, whether it’s in providing social value, delivering affordable housing, or keeping the streets clean and safe. London has always changed. But responding to this new wave of change poses new challenges. And one which the development world has a role in.

Daniel Reast,  Insight Executive

dr@londoncommunications.co.uk

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GOVE GETTER

Busy bee: Michael Gove has certainly been busy over the past few days. In an interview with The Sunday Times and an appearance on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Secretary of State pre-briefed new measures to increase housing delivery in towns and cities.

London focus: Meanwhile, the Government-commissioned review of the London Plan has been published. The review found that while there has been an increase in the number of affordable housing starts, there is generally a ‘downward trend’ in housing delivery in the capital. The review attributes this in part to the policies included in the London Plan, while it also points to other factors including macroeconomic conditions, building safety regulations and viability issues (which were outside the scope of the review).

I wrote a letter: In a letter to the Mayor, Gove said that he agrees with the review’s findings that a presumption in favour of building new homes on brownfield land is ‘most effective means of cutting through some of the complexity in the existing London Plan which may currently be serving to thwart housing delivery’. However, Gove has not gone as far as to intervene any further in London’s planning process, making this whole process seem, as explained by Nick Bowes earlier this week, like more of a damp squib than anything else. In his response, the Mayor said that he rejected the findings, referring to the review as a ‘stunt’.

Build, build, brownfield: On this, the Government has launched two national consultations on: 

1. Brownfield developments, which would require planning authorities to give ‘significant weight’ to the delivery of as many homes as possible and include a ‘presumption in favour of brownfield development’ in the 20 most populous towns and cities in England.
2. Reforms to permitted development rights (PDR) to make it easier to convert commercial buildings or units into homes.
3. Regionally, Gove also said that he will be ‘seeking views’ on an increase to the threshold at which a residential planning application is referrable to the Mayor.

Stepping in: Gove has also said that his Department will intervene in any English local authorities which fail to meet their housing delivery targets. Those councils that don’t achieve at least 75% of their target will be placed under a directive, meaning they will have to grant planning permission for any homes proposed on brownfield land.

Euston: The Government has also announced new investment for London to boost housing delivery. This will see a new Euston Housing Delivery Group backed by £4m to ‘explore’ potential housing opportunities beyond the existing Euston Station site, working with Camden Council, the Department for Transport and the Euston Partnership.

Capital spending: There’s also a £125m loan from Homes England to Berkeley Homes for the delivery of around 8,000 new homes (40% affordable) on brownfield sites in Newham and Southwark, plus £50m of investment into estate regeneration in the capital, which will be delivered to social housing providers via the Affordable Homes Programme.

Reality check: The Mayor has come under renewed criticism after the latest figures showed that only 658 homes were started under the Affordable Homes Programme between April and December last year, meaning that work has begun on only 2.8% of the minimum target of 23,900 homes to be delivered by March 2026.

LONDON POLITICS LATEST

Labour troubles I: Kate Osamor, MP for Edmonton, who recently lost the Labour whip after remarks on Holocaust Memorial day about Gaza and Israel, has been hit by a vote of no confidence from the local constituency Labour Party for the new constituency of Edmonton and Winchmore Hill. This will raise questions over whether she’ll be the area’s Labour’s candidate at the General Election.

Labour troubles II: Elsewhere, the Standard reported on a growing band of independents in London looking to challenge Labour MPs over the party’s stance on Gaza. The piece looks at Leanne Mohamad, representing the Redbridge Community Action Group, who is taking on Wes Streeting in Ilford North.

Labour troubles III: Three-councillor strong Newham Independents have officially applied to the Electoral Commission to become a registered political party. This would allow the group to use approved electoral descriptions and a party emblem on election ballot papers.

Will it make a difference? With a number of constituencies in the capital home to large Muslim communities, nerves at Party HQ ahead of the Mayoral and General Election might just by jangling, particularly as Labour’s troubles in Rochdale and Hyndburn continue to grab the headlines. 

Tory troubles: It’s not all plain sailing for the London Conservatives, with more Tory grumblings last weekend at Susan Hall’s campaign for London Mayor. While we’ve not seen a Mayoral poll since November, the Tory’s candidate was around twenty points behind Sadiq Khan, although Hall remains resolutely confident she’ll win.

Paul v Hall: Part II: PoliticsHome also report the remarkable news that former Minister for London and one time Tory Mayoral hopeful Paul Scully is so unhappy with the current campaign that he had toyed with standing as an independent. Given the way Scully responded to Rishi Sunak’s comments at PMQs last week, it seems pretty clear the Sutton and Cheam MP isn’t all that happy at the current Tory state of affairs.

Romford relief: Breathing a sigh of relief will be Tory Andrew Rosindell. The Romford MP’s four year investigation into alleged sexual misconduct has now been dropped by the Met Police.

A dim view: As mentioned in the introduction, Havering Council’s chronic financial crisis is biting. A raft of cost cutting measures will see the dimming of street lights and the cancelling of Christmas decorations in a desperate attempt to save money. London Councils have warned that the city’s local authority finances are on a ‘knife edge’, with an overspend of £400m putting key services at risk.

Deepfaked: Sadiq Khan has spoken about his fears of ‘serious disorder’ after fake audio of him making remarks prior to last year’s Armistice Day were shared through social media. Speaking on BBC podcast Why Do You Hate Me?, Khan has called for shake up of the laws for what he fears will be a growing problem. 

Flipping Valentines: In lighter news, Khan has spilled the beans on how he wooed his wife and Hall wished everyone a happy Pancake Day and a happy Valentine’s Day, commenting that she’s not expecting red roses from the Mayor and hoping voters give up Khan for Lent. You wouldn’t know there was an election on.

LB-3: Reform Party, Lib Dem and Green Party candidates for Mayor of London have been quizzed by Nick Ferrari on LBC.

What did we find out? Reform’s Howard Cox attacked Sadiq Khan as a ‘disgustingly dishonest mayor’, confirmed he’d remove ULEZ on day 1, has a dream of free public transport and will work with developers to build more “community houses”. Lib Dem Rob Blackie said the Met is in a mess, criticised Khan’s fare freezes and wants to free up more land to solve the housing crisis. Garbett thinks drugs should be completely legalised, would scrap the Congestion Charge and move towards pay-per-mile charging and has called for rent control.

• British Land and AustralianSuper have submitted plans for the redevelopment of the seven-storey Printworks building at Canada Water, previously an electronic music venue operated by Broadwick. Plans include the delivery of just under 160,000 sq ft of office space, a 3.5 acre park and transformation of the main Press Halls space into a music and cultural venue.
  
  
• Berkeley Homes has submitted an initial scoping report to Southwark Council to restart its proposed redevelopment and demolition of the Aylesham Centre in Peckham. Berkeley’s outline plans include delivering 850 homes (35% affordable) on the 6.75 acre site in buildings of between four and 20 storeys in height. This is reduced from the developer’s previous plans, withdrawn in 2023, which included the delivery of 1,050 homes (35% affordable) in buildings up to 27 storeys.
  
  
• Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has submitted a screening opinion application for developing a purpose-built student accommodation block on top of the Stratford shopping centre. The 215,000 sq ft building would be delivered on the top of the unused upper deck car park and would include flexible area provision for sports and recreation uses.
  
  
• Stanhope and Mitsubishi Estate have submitted an application to Westminster City Council to redevelop former Government offices at 1 Victoria Street. The developers propose transforming the eight-storey building into a mixed-use office and retail development, adding two additional storeys, active retail frontage and public realm improvements. The redevelopment would also retain over 60% of the existing building’s structure to reduce embodied carbon waste, while renewing the building’s façade.
  
  
• Regal London has unveiled plans for a purpose-built student accommodation scheme replacing three vacant office blocks next to the Roundhouse Camden. The plans include three ‘drum-shaped’ buildings between six and 12 storeys, containing 265 student bedrooms, 24 affordable homes and 900 sqm of ground-floor commercial space.
  
  
• Criterion Capital has unveiled plans for the redevelopment of a site at the Kingsland shopping centre in Dalston. Situated on the site of a former Matalan store and car park, Criterion proposes delivering 257 new homes (35% affordable) in four buildings rising to 14 storeys, along with 32,000 sq ft of commercial space and a new public square.
  
  
• The annual London Real Estate Forum is to move to the Guildhall, City of London, for the capital’s premier conference for the built environment sector, after a few years at the Barbican Centre. Supported by the Mayor of London and London boroughs, LREF returns on 25 September.

• Chief Executive of Redbridge Council, Claire Symonds, is to step down after nearly two years in the role. Redbridge Council’s Corporate Director of People, Adrian Loades, is to serve as interim Chief Executive while a recruitment process is carried out.
  
  
• The membership the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, which will oversee the design and delivery of a permanent memorial to the late Queen, has been announced. Former Private Secretary to the Queen, Lord Janvrin, sits as Chair with Baroness Amos, Dame Amelia Fawcett, Joe Garner, Alex Holmes, Anna Keay, Sandy Nairne and Sir William Shawcross as members.
  
  
• Retirement specialist developer Housing 21 has appointed Gurpreet Dehal as its new Chair, taking over from Stephen Hughes who has held the role since February 2019. Dehal is an independent member of the RICS’ Governing Council and a Non-Executive Director at the Ministry of Defence.
  
  
• Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre, Kwame Kwei-Armah, is stepping down after six years in the role. In his announcement, Kwei-Armah has said that the UK’s ‘pipeline’ of talent from its creative industries could be lost without Government intervention to subsidise and support the sector.
  
  
• The Charity Commission has appointed David Holdsworth as its new Chief Executive, joining from the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Holdsworth has joined as successor to Helen Stephenson, who has led the government agency for seven years.
  
  
• Robert Evans has recently joined planning and socio-economic consultancy Quod as a Non-Executive Director.
  
  
• Aman Panesar has joined BNP Paribas as a new Director in its capital markets division, joining from Cushman & Wakefield where he advised on office, retail and residential conversion deals.
  
  
• ISG board member Zoe Price has been appointed as their new CEO, replacing Matt Blowers who led the company for two years.
  
  
• Leading architect Nicholas Hare has died aged 81. Hare’s eponymous architecture practice led the design of Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Islington and the iconic Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff.

• Former Mayor of Newham Robin Wales has been selected as the Labour Party’s candidate to become Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner. Wales, who led the council between 2002-18, now lives in Suffolk and is running against the incumbent Conservative PCC, Tim Passmore.
  
  
• Wandsworth Conservatives have selected ward councillor for Thamesfield, Cllr Ethan Brooks, as their candidate to contest the Tooting constituency at the next General Election.
  
  
• The Conservative Party has selected Cllr Hannah Grey, ward councillor for West Wickham on Bromley Council, as its parliamentary candidate to contest the new Beckenham and Penge seat at the next General Election.

COUNCILLORS TO MPS?

Roots to success: Across the city’s 32 boroughs (plus the City of London corporation), there are 1,817 local councillors plus a sprinkling of directly elected Mayors. Some are eyeing up the prospects of winning a seat in Parliament at the next election here in London. LCA is tracking these, and we’ve captured these in our handy graphic below. Here’s a roundup of some of the one’s we’ve spotted.

Leading the pack: Two council leaders are standing for seats in London at the next election: Cllr Jas Athwal of Redbridge, and Cllr Darren Rodwell of Barking and Dagenham are Labour’s candidates in Ilford South and Barking constituencies. On current polling, both should expect to win, leaving two large holes to fill in their respective councils. Rodwell’s leadership on the development of Barking Riverside, and Athwal’s spearheading of regeneration in Ilford, would give the Labour benches two built environment allies.

Wombling free? As a rare three-way marginal, Wimbledon is the focus for a couple of local politicians. Deputy Leader of Merton Council, Cllr Eleanor Stringer, is Labour’s choice for the seat while the Lib Dems have reselected former academic Cllr Paul Kohler as their pick. After Stephen Hammond’s decision to step down, the Conservatives have chosen former triathlete and businesswoman Danielle Dunfield-Prayero to fight the ‘tough but winnable’ seat.

Cities, suburbs, hamlets: Two Labour figures from Tower Hamlets are fighting top London target seats for the party. Cllr Rachel Blake, representing the Bow East ward, will be looking to seize Cities of London and Westminster, boosted by Tory incumbent Nickie Aiken’s announcement she will not be standing next time. Former Bromley North ward councillor Dan Tomlinson will be hoping to take Chipping Barnet for Labour from long-standing Tory Theresa Villiers.

Yet more to come: As a result of boundary changes, there’ll be 75 seats in London at the next election and the selection processes for political parties are still ongoing. Our helpful graphic below gives just a glimpse into the conveyor belt of London councillor-to-London-MP hopefuls. LCA’s Insight Team is keeping a close eye on these changes but do let us know if we have missed any.

WE RECOMMEND

• Our own Nick Bowes in The MJ on devolution and the future prospects for London.
• Politico’s Valentine’s special roundup of Westminster’s power couples.
• The campaigners fighting to save London’s remaining original gas lamps.
• The FT’s interview with Canary Wharf Group’s George Iacobescu.
• The new requirements Bristol has in store for student accommodation providers.
• City A.M.’s interview with Matt Palmer, who is currently leading the Lower Thames Crossing project.
• The latest stats which show that six in 10 of London’s LGBTQ+ venues have closed down since 2006.

'WE MUST DESIGN BUILDINGS THAT ARE ACCEPTED BY THE PUBLIC AND STAND THE TEST OF TIME

Baumschlager Eberle is featured in BusinessGreen – Managing Partner Anne Speicher looks at the future of the UK’s housing landscape, and what lessons we can learn from Europe.

Anne speaks about how we can adapt to the dynamic built environment industry, and that rethinking typologies in social housing is an integral approach. Read the full piece here.

THIS LOVE AT THE DESIGN DISTRICT

LCA client Design District is proud to host award-winning magazine writer, editor, author and podcaster Lotte Jeffs as she presents her debut novel This Love on 20 February. Chaired by Ben Townley-Caning, founder and editor of the queer poetry magazine Fourteen Poems, the event will explore creative collaboration, writing poetry and prose, and why we need more stories of queer joy.

Signed and exclusively dedicated copies of This Love plus the latest issue of Fourteen Poems are up for grabs, so come enjoy a drink with other fans of queer-lit in the cosy environs of Design District's Forum.

Photo courtesy of Dan Weill Photography

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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