Are London’s High Streets and Town Centres in Crisis? Meeting report
We held a lively meeting last week, chaired by Michael Bach (pictured), examining the many issues around high streets and the night time economy. We had four expert speakers, and a significant number of audience questions.
For the first time, we video-recorded the event. The video and audio recordings are posted on the event page. We used AI to generate a summary, plus an even shorter summary here. If you’d like to discover how we did this, please book for our AI talk at the end of April, where we’ll cover this amongst other topics.… Read more...
![Planning meeting [AI generated]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ChatGPT-Image-Mar-28-2026-12_36_42-PM.jpg?resize=1280%2C853&ssl=1)
Planning Committee reform and boosting home building
There is a consultation to 23rd April 2026 on draft regulations and guidance for planning committee reforms from the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 which covers delegation of planning decisions and the size of planning committees, published with the Government’s response to the associated 2025 technical consultation.
The lawyer Nicola Gooch of Birketts explains the consultation in a blog here.
Nicola covers also the other Government’s publication on 25th March 2026 of the final set of emergency measures to boost London house building and supplies links to its five key documents.
Banning leasehold for new flats
The Government is seeking comments until 24th April 2026 on plans to introduce a ban on new leasehold flats.
Views are wanted on:-
- The scope of the ban
- The case for exemptions from the ban
- How a ban on new leasehold flats should operate as part of our approach to moving to the reformed commonhold model
- When a ban on leasehold for new flats should start and what transitional arrangements might be needed
- The costs and benefits in moving to commonhold and complying with the ban
UK Industrial Strategy
The Department for Business and Trade has published an Industrial Strategy, including a Technical Annex. It is a 10-year plan to significantly increase business investment in eight growth-driving sectors, by making it quicker and easier for businesses to invest and providing them with the certainty and stability needed for long-term investment decisions.
For each sector, the specific details of the Government’s approach will be set out in Sector Plans for each sector which are defined here.
Reforms to Building Energy Performance regime
A ‘Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime’ consultation was published on 4th December 2024. It had proposals on what reformed Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will measure and when EPCs will be required.
The Government issued a partial response to that consultation on 9th March 2026 and intends to issue a further response in 2026 covering the remaining parts of the consultation and additional questions. Subject to parliamentary approvals, it is intended to bring forward regulations in 2026 to make these changes ahead of implementing new-style domestic EPCs.
![London Collisions Map [TfL]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/London-Collisions-Map.jpg?resize=1245%2C827&ssl=1)
Mayor’s ‘Vision Zero’ road safety plan
On 13th March 2026 the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) launched an updated ‘Vision Zero’ plan to significantly reduce road danger and prevent deaths and serious injuries on London’s roads over the next five years.
TfL is considering how to tackle the safety issues posed by oversized cars such as SUVs, which are increasingly common on London’s roads and more likely to cause deaths or serious injuries in collisions and are too wide for existing parking infrastructure.… Read more...
![Home based working [House of Lords]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Home-based-working-scaled.jpeg?resize=1280%2C1810&ssl=1)
Home-based working
The Government has responded positively to the report by the House of Lords Home-Based Working Select Committee and shares its view that home-based working can play an important role in supporting productivity, well-being and labour market participation.
The Department for Business and Trade says it is delivering on commitments in Plan to Make Work Pay, by introducing changes through the Employment Rights Act 2025 to make it more likely that flexible working requests are accepted.… Read more...
![Housing in London 2025 report - affordable housing starts [GLA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Housing-in-London-2025-report-002-22_1.png?resize=1280%2C909&ssl=1)
Housing in London 2025
The most recent Housing in London report includes five thematic chapters:
- Demographic, economic and housing context
- Housing stock and supply
- Housing costs and affordability
- Housing needs, including homelessness and overcrowding
- Mobility and decent homes
A PDF version is available here, while the data for this and previous reports can be found on the London Datastore here.
Housing in London is the evidence base for developing the Mayor’s Housing Strategy and for London Plan housing policies.… Read more...
Planning in London, Issue 136, Jan-Mar 2026
Issue 136 of Planning in London, the journal of the London Planning and Development Forum, has been published, covering the period Jan-Mar 2026. London Forum has a subscription arrangement whereby our members may read it.
A useful AI-generated summary can be downloaded (included in website searches).
Table of contents:
- Planning Enables; It Doesn’t Deliver — the editors’ critique of housing delivery failure.
- New Kinds of Suburbia — Mallett on suburban densification and design-led approaches.
- Key Opinion Pieces — [more…]
Demo on affordable housing crisis
Didn’t find what you’re looking for? Try a new search:
![Manual for streets 2010 [CiHT]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/manua-for-streets-2-1-scaled-e1776252588896.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Manual for Streets 3
Environmental Outcomes Reports
Chief Planning Officer’s newsletter
![London Bus [Unsplash]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jonathan-chng-uIsygO87jtM-unsplash.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1)
The rise and fall of bus passenger numbers in London
Bus passenger numbers in London reached a peak of 2.4 billion in 2014, but since then have fallen to 1.8 billion in 2025. This decline is now exercising the Mayor and GLA Transport Committee, but it is not a new phenomenon. From 1958 to the early 1980s there was steady decline in bus usage. In the ten years to December 1969 the scheduled fleet fell from 7756 to 6900, if Country buses and Green Line services are included.… Read more...
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