Planning Committee Reforms: Stop the Attack on Local Democracy!
The London Forum has issued a scathing response to the Government’s recent consultation on Planning Committee reforms.
The proposals were branded as authoritarian and anti-democratic
Despite claims that these changes will focus committees on complex cases, the draft regulations actually prevent many significant, contentious applications from ever being seen by elected members.
Under the new “Schedule 1” and “Schedule 2” system, the overriding assumption is that almost all applications will be decided by officers. The Forum is particularly concerned that conservation areas have been excluded from special consideration, and that major phased developments—which can impact communities for decades—will lose essential public scrutiny.… Read more...
National Planning Policy Framework consultation response
We’ve responded to the December 2025 NPPF consultation, which closed on 12th March 2026. This substantial piece of work, contributed to by many subject matter experts, is posted in the ‘what we’ve said‘ archive as usual, and directly linked below for your convenience. It is now fully indexed for searching too.
We are critical of some of the new decision making policies.
Response to ‘Towards a new London Plan’
We’ve formally responded to the consultation on ‘Towards a new London Plan’, which closed yesterday evening, following on from the presentation by the Deputy Mayor, Jules Pipe, at London Forum’s event on 13th May.
We used some AI tools to help summarise our answers to the long set of questions in a readable format, with the detailed summary now held in our ‘What we’ve said’ archive here.
A shorter summary can be found below:
Section 1: Introduction
London Forum expresses strong reservations about the imposed Government’s housing target for London of 88,000 new homes per year, arguing that it was accepted by the Mayor without a proper assessment of London’s actual needs.… Read more...
DCMS Inquiry: Protecting Built Heritage
We’ve responded to the recent DCMS inquiry on Protecting Built Heritage, the response is posted in the ‘what we’ve said‘ archive as usual, and linked below for your convenience.
London Forum commented on the need for funding for English Heritage and Historic England, the importance of grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the deployment of enough skilled heritage practitioners.
Consultation Responses
We’ve responded to a couple of recent MHCLG and GLA papers, the responses are posted in the ‘what we’ve said‘ archive, and linked below for your convenience:
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The Queen Elizabeth II Garden
Is architecture in crisis?
Planning enforcement
Architects should rejoice that Britain’s latest new towns aren’t new towns at all
By Ben Derbyshire, chair at HTA Design, former RIBA president, and President of the London Forum.
I don’t generally play for laughs, but I got one anyway at Design West’s Arnolfini conference on Labour’s then-new housing plans when I urged the audience not to hold their breath waiting for the twelve promised new towns. We still haven’t finished the ones Richard Crossman began in the 1960s. As it turns out, we needn’t have worried because of the seven finally announced, all but one are not new towns at all, but much more sensible urban extensions.… Read more...
Most Popular This Week
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Planning, Environment and Transport committee meeting
📅 Thu 11th June | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
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London Forum open meeting - Enforcement
📅 Mon 29th June | 18:30 - 20:30
🚩 77 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EL (map)
Speakers and agenda to be confirmed
Please save the date !