Click on a button below to select a subset of articles on the indicated subject tag. You can subscribe to all news using Feed Readers / RSS 
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 [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 [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 [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’.
Infrastructure Strategy
The Government has set out its working paper for developing a 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy which seeks to bring together a plan for the country’s social, economic and housing infrastructure. The Strategy will also describe an institutional framework to support its implementation, including setting out the role of public financial institutions and how the Strategy will support other strategies, such as the industrial strategy.
Environment improvement
There is a statement from DEFRA’s Secretary of State, Steve Reed, providing an update on the rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) launched on 30 July 2024. It sets out key strategic findings from the rapid review and plans for revising the EIP.