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The new London Plan: Shaping housing for the future: rescheduled
This London Forum/London Society joint event has been rescheduled for May 13th because of a delay in the publication of the supporting GLA paper ‘Towards a London Plan’ – originally due in February.
The details are on the rescheduled event page, and booking is still essential. There are a few more tickets available at UCL as it’s a larger lecture theatre.
If you booked for the original date, you should have been notified of the change by email, with your booking now moved to the new date. Please [more…]
Funds for social homes
Government announced £2 billion investment to support social and affordable house building. £400 million of that was allocated to London in addition to £100 million in the budget last autumn. All projects funded will need to start by March 2027 and finish by June 2029. City Hall has been asked to allocate the funds to prioritise social rent homes.
London Councils estimates boroughs spend £4m every day on temporary accommodation. This spending has jumped 68% over [more…]
Safe as Houses
‘Safe as Houses: Why Investment in Social Housing is Great for Us and Our Economy’ is the title of a publication by Shelter here.
It sets out the economic and fiscal case for investing in social homes and includes analyses of how the housing emergency is damaging our economy. It offers insights into how social housing stimulates productive investment and an efficient labour market.
Polly Neate CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Shelter wrote in a foreword to the document “Unless there is a wish to repeat the neglect of [more…]
Housing supply
The Government updated its housing supply statistics to include an estimate of net additional dwellings between 1 April 2024 and 23 March 2025. Also, an estimate of net additional dwellings since 9 July 2024, to measure progress towards the government’s target to deliver 1.5 million homes during the current parliament. See here.
London Forum on BlueSky @londonforum.org.uk
We’re pleased to announce that The London Forum is now on the BlueSky social media platform. We’re using our domain name as our ‘handle’ for clarity: @londonforum.org.uk and we encourage members to follow us there.
Our latest postings appear on the website as shown in the screenshot below, and we plan to post our news updates and Insights to the service regularly. We’ll also post and re-post other items of interest to the membership as we spot them.
[more…]Sustaining success in parks
In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with officers, elected Councillors and communities in Islington Council and Leeds City Council, which have thriving parks services that contribute effectively to their communities.
The review outlines recommendations to both local and central government as a result of its findings.
Grenfell Tower
The Deputy Prime Minister met bereaved families and survivors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and has written to them and local residents explaining that the tower will be taken down. The Government issued an update on the process.
Many residential blocks of flats have unsafe cladding on the walls which owners are finding expensive to replace. The Government published Cladding Remediation Guidance in July 2022.
Natural flood management
The Government reviewed the latest research on natural flood management and updated the ‘Working with Natural Processes’ evidence directory. The measures protect, restore or emulate the natural functions of rivers, floodplains, catchments and the coast to reduce flooding and coastal erosion. The report and findings are here.
BPF calls for more planners
British Property Federation (BPF) has called on Government for 3000 more planners (only 300 had been pledged) and more resources for the Building Safety Regulator, to unlock delivery of thousands of new homes across the country, as here.
They propose the Government could unlock an additional £20bn private capital to deliver 240,000 units of social housing over the next five years, as here.
Old Kent Road Area Action Plan Consultation
The Walworth Society are reporting a consultation on the Old Kent Road Area Action Plan.
The plan will incorporate around 20,000 new homes, including affordable, 10,000 new jobs, community facilities new parks and public transport improvements, including the proposed extension to the Bakerloo Line and new underground stations.
More details are on Southwark’s website. You can provide your comments on their consultation page until Friday 11th April.
Friary Park update
Both GLA and independent analysis of viability for the Friary Park scheme in LB Ealing indicate a profit of up to £18m compared with Mount Anvil’s claims of their £30m loss, as explained in the video, which could affect the amount of affordable housing in the development.
The Assembly will be asked to consider the situation and DHCLG will be informed.
The Government is considering bringing into force an unimplemented part of the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023 on how a developer’s past behaviour could be taken into account by [more…]
Culture funding
The DCMS £270m ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’ includes £15m for repairing Heritage at Risk and a new £4.85m Heritage Revival Fund. There is also an £85m ‘Creative Foundations Fund’ for capital works to venues, £25m for capital works to museums via the ‘Museum Estate and Development Fund’, £120m for capital works to DCMS-sponsored bodies via the ‘Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund’, and £3.2m for cultural education including the ‘Heritage Schools Programme’.