Comment

London Plan: New Year, new challenges

The end of 2020 brought a well reported flurry of action between the Mayor and the Secretary of State on the London Plan following a lengthy stand-off; some might say a fitting end to a year that saw significant muted and actual overhaul to the planning system, which shows no sign of slowing down into 2021.

This includes ongoing potential change to the standard method for assessing housing need, and live consultation on further changes to permitted development rights, ahead of potential further consultations in response to the feedback received on the planning white paper last summer.

In London, the Mayor and several London boroughs have continued the process of revising their development plans, amid this ever changing policy and legislative backdrop, and in the context of a rapidly changing world that saw an empty West End over Christmas for the first time in living memory. This comes at a time when the planning system and much of society is playing catch up with how 2020 has changed life for us all.

To re-cap the recent accelerated London Plan progress, the Mayor wrote to the Secretary of State in early December, setting out his intention to formally approve and publish a new London Plan. This was the first publically visible activity on the London Plan since April, when the Mayor set out minor amendments to the numerous directions issued by the Secretary of State in March, which followed the receipt of the Inspectors Report on the examination in public at the end of 2019.

Frustration from the Mayor around the delays to the London Plan was clear in the letter, following the extensive activity from MHCLG over the course of 2020 on the planning white paper, permitted development rights and other planning related matters, against their relative radio silence relating to the London Plan. The Secretary of State’s response to this letter and stated intention from the Mayor was however incredibly swift and direct, as has become common place in the public communication between the two parties. It does however signal a light at the end of the tunnel for the London Plan, and a potential path to a fairly swift adoption in early 2021.

The Secretary of State set out two further directions in his response, both significant and the effects of which will be felt in some London boroughs more than others.

• Firstly, the Secretary of State has set out a direction that gives boroughs the option to re-allocate/release industrial land for alternative uses in exceptional circumstances, instead of considering the release of Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land. 
• Secondly, a further direction is brought in around tall buildings, including a new definition for tall buildings of a minimum of 6 storeys or 18m where there is no local definition of a tall building. The direction acknowledges ‘a place for tall buildings in London’; however this place now must be clearly defined by boroughs in their Local Plans, and tall buildings only brought forward in these locations.

As such, a new year with new challenges ahead for Local Authorities and the industry more widely in London, particularly around how this aspiration from the Secretary of State for the delivery of ‘gentle densification’ fits in with the housing targets that are emerging for London through the new standard method, and how this is compatible, or not, with these two new directions and the London Plan more generally. Furthermore it remains unclear how the London Plan and soon to be adopted policies (particularly on commercial uses) will account for the recent changes to the Use Classes Order.

Our London Director team will explore these new directions and challenges in more depth over the coming weeks, focusing on tall buildings policy, industrial land release, and housing delivery.

Please contact Laurence Brooker for further information.

8 January 2021