There is a 67 page summary of their report. 

The key areas for reform include:

• Establishing a cross-sector strategy for water covering the water industry, agriculture, land-use, energy, transport, and housing development
• Modernising the legislative framework
• Establishing a new regulatory framework (including the abolition of Ofwat)
• Changing the way water demands are managed
• Strengthening the governance of companies, including the introduction of a new regime for senior accountability and changes to company licence conditions
• Improving the management of the sector’s critical infrastructure – namely, the underground pipes and other assets that underpin water and wastewater services.

Why the draft Plan falls short

We agree strongly that the Government’s 85,000-a-year target for new homes is unrealistic and that a lower target is needed. But the draft Plan that follows is built on housing evidence that does not stand up, and on growth that depends on infrastructure nobody has committed to provide. In our analysis it risks failing the NPPF soundness test.

• The housing target doesn’t stand up. Projections made ten years ago for 2024 were more than 550,000 above the ONS’s own estimate. The housing-need assessment was hastily amended to fit the 558,000 target, and rests on an assumption that household formation should return to 2001 levels, with no evidence given.
  What evidence is there that 558,000 homes is a sound target, or the right mix of homes?
• The wrong homes, and too few for those in greatest need. The Plan’s evidence steers 55–65% of new homes to one-bedroom units and finds no need for new market family homes. The 50% affordable target is far too low, and the real crisis is among renters needing social rent.
  Why is a Plan for London planning so few family homes and so little low-cost rent?
• Growth without the infrastructure to support it. The Opportunity Areas must deliver over 400,000 homes, many depending on transport schemes with no committed funding. Outside Annex F the Plan makes no reference to public service infrastructure, and the Transport Strategy dates from 2018.
  Which of the transport and public service investments the Plan relies on are actually funded?
• Green Belt and industrial land are being given up first. The Plan does not require a clear, evidenced demonstration that brownfield and under-used land have been fully considered before Green Belt is released. It also releases industrial land for housing while another policy aims to protect it, and nothing explains how the two are reconciled.
  Why release Green Belt and industrial land before the alternatives have been shown to be exhausted?
• The Thames is missing from the Plan. Thames Policy Areas appear only in one policy and are ignored in the spatial strategy, tall buildings, heritage and views policies. Tall buildings could go almost anywhere, making local-plan locations pointless.
  Where is the Plan’s vision for the Thames, and what is the point of identifying locations for tall buildings if they can be built anywhere?
• Protections that Londoners rely on have been weakened or dropped. Basements, single-aspect homes, minimum ceiling height, heritage protections, community cultural space and green-space standards are all watered down or missing, while construction quality enforcement is not addressed at all.
  Why are these protections being cut, and who will inspect what actually gets built?

Our comments, policy by policy

Each entry shows whether we support, support with changes, or object, with a link to the GLA’s policy text and to our full comment in the response. Of the 52 policies below, 8 are objections, 22 support with changes, 20 support and 2 no comment.

Continue reading on the London Forum website »

Contents:

• The draft London Plan — 558,000 homes, Green Belt, densities, tall buildings
• The new NPPF — pro-development presumptions, station-led growth & viability
• Less say for councillors and communities? — the new scheme of delegation & front-loaded appeals
• Housing at a low ebb — record-low approvals, the Mayor’s City Hall Developer, and ideas for getting London building, including contributions by Dame Kate Barker (Spatial strategy) & Nicholas Boys Smith (Create Streets).
• London Planning & Development Forum — Michael Edwards remembered; experts and civic groups, including London Forum & London Society, critique the Plan & NPPF
• Projects & places — City Plan 2040, Truman Brewery, BT Tower, British Library, Royal Docks
• Culture & heritage — St Paul’s & fabric, Hinsley Lane, the RIBA’s House of Architecture
• Also — mayoral politics, transport, rents, planning stats & books

Our AI-generated summary is available for those needing the SP.

The full journal is not available on our website, but selected excerpts are available on the PiL website. London Forum has a subscription arrangement for members – see below.

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He wrote that, as he comes to the end of his term as chair of that panel, it is an apposite moment for him to share the panel’s views on the Prime Minister’s call for “growth in every postcode.”

Ben will be talking about this subject at the AGM on 28th October

You can read the full article here.

Where a footway lies between the charger and the car, the cable must cross under it through an authorised cross-pavement channel. A new Part 9, Class F lets highway authorities install those channels but that requires planning permission.

Many boroughs have already fitted electric vehicle charging points into street lighting columns.

The Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook MP acknowledged in a speech the tough viability conditions for development, with margins squeezed by reduced interest cover and higher materials costs. He argued the government has nonetheless delivered on its earlier commitments. He cited the £39bn ten-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme SAHP (for at least 60% Social Rent), a ten-year rent settlement at CPI+1% with rent convergence, and £2.5bn of low-interest loans. He also mentioned restored Right to Buy discounts with full receipt retention, ahead of reforms in the Social Housing Bill.… Read more...

They are to blogs by healthcare and urban planning advocate, Clare Delmar and to Urban Design Learning for their guides on design codes, design reviews and best practice, together with videos of site visits and recommendations on green infrastructure. We also added a link to Westminster’s ‘Weather Ready Homes’ advice.

There are now several retrofit resources on the page, including more than one from Historic England, and two regularly mentioned member-curated resources: from ESSA and the Bedford Park Society.

They call for more consistency in school closure process and powers to manage surplus school buildings.

The news site MyLondon has published a similar article.

It explains that the funding allocated for each individual school is directly tied to the number of students it has enrolled so many individual schools are facing a funding crisis.