One key takeaway from our Landing Dinner with Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Regeneration, was the scale of challenges facing organisations across the built environment sector when it comes to delivering their ambitions. From viability, to building safety, to infrastructure, to utilities, to a slow planning system, numerous hurdles stand in the way of much-needed development.
Housebuilders, logistics specialists and office developers are all grappling with these barriers. However, as the Deputy Mayor put it, “London is an elephant”: a city with unique resilience and adaptability that cannot be underestimated.
It is these challenges, and the overarching target of 88,000 new homes a year, that will set much of the context for the forthcoming London Plan review which the Deputy Mayor and his planning team will lead on.
No part of the plan is off limits, and City Hall has said its committed to working closely with those at the “sharp end” of the sector to identify improvements that can unlock delivery. Public and private collaboration will be critical to the capital getting anywhere near its housing target.
Throughout the event, sponsored by our members Arcadis. the Deputy Mayor focused on the Mayor’s good growth principles and reiterated the importance of shaping a London that is fit for the future. This means providing the right infrastructure, ensuring our places are resilient and adaptive to a changing climate, and ensuring that London becomes a truly sustainable city.
With the Mayor also appearing at MIPIM this year, and consensus from national government through to the Mayor and the London Boroughs, there is clear momentum behind London. Jules captured this in his remarks and posed the question to those in attendance: “how do we now grab the momentum?”
BusinessLDN and its members will be engaging with the London Plan review over the coming months and years to ensure that it is a plan that keeps London as the best city in the world in which to do business. To find out more about our work in this area, contact Harry Steele.