LPAs and Biodiversity
The “Biodiversity Evidence – Better Outcomes from Planning” project of ‘Greenspace Information for Greater London’ aims to understand the challenges, limitations and needs of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in London with regards to taking account of biodiversity early on in the planning process, and to provide resources to help them overcome some of these issues.
Their report can be downloaded from here.
High quality Social Housing
The Policy Exchange has a 35-Point Blueprint for a New Generation of Superlative British Social Housing. It calls for a new generation of exemplary council housing that will restore the traditional, humanist social and design ideals that marked the early iterations of English public housing. The report argues that by so doing, not only will we help solve the affordability riddle that lies at the heart of the housing crisis, but we will provide the growth, prosperity and social mobility that will help turbo-charge the economy and support some of the most disadvantaged people in society.
Access to Green Space
CPRE (London) will run a live-stream event on Thursday 25th September 2025 on Inequality in Access to Green Space in London. Tickets are free.
Economic growth
The Resolution Foundation claims that growth would make all the Government’s challenges easier to solve – but it is not straining every sinew to achieve it.
Moped kills cyclist
The Standard reports a cyclist in Hammersmith’s part-segregated Cycleway 9 was hit by a moped and died. LCC CEO Tom Fyans criticised the cycleway design which allows mopeds to enter it.
This is the sixth cyclist death this year and TfL is raising awareness of Highway Code rules.
An illegal e-bike boom article in the Guardian reported some of them capable of 70mph.
Hogarth roundabout tall building
The ‘Chiswick Calendar’ website reports that residents are taking their objections to a proposed high development alongside Hogarth roundabout at 1 Burlington Lane to the Mayor. They claim it would harm Chiswick House and Grounds, Hogarth’s House, several conservation areas, local views and the Kew WHS Royal Botanical Gardens. Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee gave the development the go-ahead despite only 6% affordable housing.
Blockers and Approvers: Rates of Delegation and Approval for Planning Applications
The Government recently published Planning Statistics for the year to March 2025. For the 32 London boroughs, the statistics showed some interesting features.
First, they showed that all but three boroughs – Camden, Ealing and Harrow delegated decisions to officers on 90% or more of the applications they received; and that 19 of them delegated decisions on more than 98% of applications. Two boroughs – Enfield and Redbridge – delegated decisions on nearly 100% of applications.… Read more...
From Small Beginnings – The London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies
The first initiative to bring London-based amenity societies together as a federation was the brainchild of two prominent and environmentally-committed members of the Blackheath Society, Neil Rhind and Tony Aldous. Neil, whose expertise was on the history and social development of Blackheath, had been the Society’s press officer and later its President from 2016 to his death in 2023.
Tony, a journalist, wrote on environmental issues for The Times and The Independent. He published many books on environmental matters, one of which was “London Villages”.… Read more...
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Increase in SUVs
The Assembly’s Transport Committee is calling for more to be done to discourage SUV car use after their number increased ten-fold in London since 2002.
There is an article in BBC News on this subject.
The vehicles tend to be heavier, larger and more polluting than other cars. Imperial College London found that if hit by an SUV compared to being hit by a smaller car you are 44% more likely to be killed. For children it’s 82% as the taller, blunter bonnets means they are more likely to be hit in the head or the torso.
Homes on Green Belt
The OnLondon news channel is one to which London Forum recommends its members should subscribe. Its edition here includes a review of the progress of review of LB Enfield’s new Local Plan. It promotes the use of Green Belt land for housing and the arguments for and against that will be considered by the Inspector in the examination’s stage three in October 2025.
There are other news items of interest in the OnLondon website including an Earls Court special, details of proposals to address use of mobile phones on the Underground in ‘speaker’ mode and information on TfL’s property company ‘Places for London’.
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Balancing quality and quantity to deliver 1.5m homes
This article was first published in Housing Today.
The government – and housebuilders – must be given the best possible chance of achieving its ambitious target writes Ben Derbyshire
Nobody wants new homes built nearby because what housebuilders do looks horrible and inevitably overwhelms local infrastructure – right? Well, hold on. How else can the government achieve its target of a million and a half new homes within the life of this parliament?
According to the 2024 Competition & Markets Authority report, in 2021-22 the largest 11 speculative housing developers together supplied around 40% of new homes built.… Read more...
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