Updates

The Local Government Association and others commissioned a report which makes the economic and fiscal case for constructing 100,000 new council homes each year.
The Centre for Social Justice has produced a new vision for affordable housing in an analysis of the hidden housing crisis.

The London Recovery Board has met to discuss progress of its nine recovery missions to help make London greener, fairer and safer. The Mayor has published their updates on the Talk London website here.

A retrofit advice note has been written by London Forum trustee Helen Warner on the points to take into consideration when making a home more carbon efficient.

The November 2021 Planning Bulletin from Historic England is here.

There are eighteen items in the published Environment Act that planners, developers, communities and decision makers need to understand and apply.

The High Streets Task Force has published a report on footfall in high streets and district centres in 2020-2021 and what influences recovery. The trend shows a shift from retail to multifunctional high streets.
The NLA published a report ‘Local London’ on 1st December 2021 for building resilient neighbourhoods which demonstrates how our high streets and town centres can integrate a new mix of uses, enhance public realm, improve infrastructure and ultimately strengthen the capital’s polycentricity.
The LUHC Committee published a report on High Street recovery and how the Government must learn the related lessons from Covid-19.

The government’s chief planner, Joanna Averley, in her latest newsletter to local authorities has reiterated a ministerial call for councils to complete work on their local plans by December 2023. They are urged also to publish their newly-required infrastructure funding statements of contributions through section 106 planning obligations or the community infrastructure levy (CIL) by the “fast approaching” deadline of the end of 2021.

There are consultations on two pieces of London Plan guidance for Air Quality Neutral (AQN) and Air Quality Positive (AQP). An engagement portal is for access to the documents, signing up to events about them and submitting responses. Deadline for submissions to the consultations is 27 February 2022.

The GLA Public London Charter, consulted upon in 2020, has been launched. It supports London Plan Policy D8 Public realm part H and paragraph 3.8.9 and applies to all developments in which new public space is provided.

The Government has published a Net Zero strategy, a Hydrogen strategy and a Heat and Buildings strategy. Those will affect our homes in future.
London Forum has produced some notes on net zero and hydrogen policies and extracts from the Government’s documents.
There is a very informative video which the Hammersmith Society has published within an article here. It has some warnings about conversion from gas boilers to air source heat pumps and encouraging comments about the future use of hydrogen boilers.

A draft manifesto of vision for its area has been prepared by the Richmond Society to be considered at its AGM in December 2021. It can be seen here.
Details of similar publications by other societies are welcomed.

Two more pieces of draft guidance for London Plan policies have been published. Consultation on them runs until 20th December 2021.
They are for the Urban Greening Factor (UGF) related to Policy G5 and for Sustainable Transport, Walking and Cycling related to Policy T3 and can be seen by clicking on numbers 8 and 10 in the list of guidance here.
A GLA presentation about the UGF is here.