Diary

Diary

Forthcoming Events

No forthcoming events are published yet. New events are on the way...

 

September 2026

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  • Will the London Plan deliver the housing and places London needs?
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Agenda

This agenda listing shows events scheduled for the next six weeks.

Scroll through events with the large next/previous arrows. Hover your mouse over the month grid adjacent [touch dots on mobiles] for event details. 

  • Will the London Plan deliver the housing and places London needs?

    📆 Mon 14th September | 18:30 - 20:30
    🚩 77 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EL (map)
    A last chance to shape the London Plan — join us next Monday. The draft London Plan proposes that 50% of all new homes be affordable. With competition for homes, industrial and other uses, some housing will be built in what is now Green Belt land. This is an important subject covering proposals for housing development in London for the next 20 years. Book now ( https://www.londonforum.org.uk/events/will-the-london-plan-deliver-the-housing-and-places-london-needs/#booking ) for this Open Meeting on Monday 14th September. We’ve invited the London Plan team to talk about: The amount of housing required to meet…

Latest News

Parks and Climate Change

8th September 2026|Tags: , , , |

The Heritage Fund worked with Historic England to better understand how the climate crisis is affecting the UK’s natural heritage sites and the people that manage them.

As the first research of its kind, owners and managers of historic parks, gardens and cemeteries were asked how these 2,700+ registered heritage sites are coping and how they are being managed and maintained in response to climate challenges.

View Historic parks, gardens and cemeteries climate change executive summary
View Historic parks, gardens and cemeteries climate change full report

Ongoing District Line service problems

5th September 2026|Tags: , |

East Putney, Southfields, Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon stations together see over 29 million entries and exits a year but there are frequent District Line service delays. That section was left out of an upgrade scheme, as in an article in Putney News.

Campaigners urge people to visit a demonstration on 17 September, sign a petition and share it with anyone else who uses the branch, as delays affect also the District Line service east of Earls Court.

More detail on the campaign’s case [more…]

Tackling high street decline

3rd September 2026|Tags: , , , |

High streets that have been hollowed out by the unchecked spread of vape stores, betting shops, and rogue businesses that do little to serve local communities are set to face a crackdown under new powers announced by the Prime Minister.

Details of the new powers are here.

There will be a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues across England from next year to help them – fully funded by reviewing reliefs for businesses that do not make a positive contribution.

Latest Insights

Garden Annexe, Caravan, or Mobile Home?

1st July 2026|Tags: , |

Tim Catchpole of the Mortlake and East Sheen Society writes…

Our Society has had a recent experience which we would like to share with other London Forum members who may or may not have had a similar experience.

As a rule we do not normally make comments on planning applications for any development that is not visible from the public realm. However, the application in question was for planning permission for the ‘construction of a granny annex ancillary to the main house.’ We were not going to comment until neighbours approached us and drew attention to the size of the annex and the loss of trees. So we sent a representation to the Council recommending refusal in accordance with its policies against back-garden development and, sure enough, permission was accordingly refused.

However, a few days later a new application arrived for the same site, this time for a certificate of [more…]

HS2 Reset

10th June 2026|Tags: , |

The High Speed 2 railway has had numerous resets yet it clings on to its existence albeit in a truncated form. The latest announcement by the Secretary of State for Transport followed the publication of the Lovegrove report into what went wrong, and some interim recommendations from the on-going review of how the project should be reset that is being conducted by HS2’s CEO, Mark Wild. The Lovegrove report is useful because it finally nails the claim repeated over many years by politicians and many of those directly involved in the HS2 project, that its core aim is to increase railway capacity. It was designed for high speed, hence the name; indeed for higher speeds than anywhere in Europe.

HS2 has incurred all the extra cost that goes with adherence to a rigidly straight line in order to maximise speed. One of the interim recommendations is to reduce the speed – [more…]

What are BIDs doing for Town Centres in Central and Outer London?

10th June 2026|Tags: , , |

Earlier this year, London Forum organised a very interesting open meeting with members about the state of London’s High Streets and the night-time economy. One of the presenters was from a BID (Business Improvement District), highlighting their work in improving business areas in central London. That raised a question, what are BIDs doing in outer London?

Once a BID has been voted in by local businesses it is funded by a supplement to the business rates paid in the area. Of the 76 BIDs in London, around half are in central London typically with an income of over £1m pa, though a few have more than £3m. Some of the large town centre BIDs in outer London also have an income of around £1m; but many of the smaller ones operate with around £300k.

But there is more to a BID than just income. They [more…]

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