Events Archive & Records

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. We invited the London Plan team to talk about: The amount of housing required to meet London needs and the tenure and [more...] ...

The annual summer drinks party for London Forum’s paid-up members will be held at the Alan Baxter office building at Cowcross Street. Please do come along and join Trustees and committee members for drinks and nibbles on Monday 24 August from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and meet fellow activists from other member societies across London. This is a free event for a maximum of two people per society – please use the booking [more...] ...

How can we make it work better? Planning enforcement is important. Unless it’s done effectively, the integrity of the whole planning system is put at risk. But it’s one of the most frustrating issues for civic societies and local community groups.  Cases typically include: Large developments that grossly fail to meet planning conditions or even submitted drawings and plans; Illegal demolitions; Unauthorised residential alterations and extensions; Additional floors built on top of [more...] ...

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere in the news and in business these days – we even used it to generate the image for this event. How can it help your civic society ?  Do you need to be an expert? (No!)  Civic societies are often under-resourced, and at this event we showed that with a little knowledge, illustrated with examples, AI can bolster your resources in several useful ways, without necessarily spending a [more...] ...

What is the nature and scale of the crisis and why are some streets and centres doing better or worse than others. What can be done about it?  We discussed these and related issues at this Open Meeting on 26th March. London’s town centres have had a challenging decade – changing planning policies, growing on-line sales, COVID, vacant shops and rising costs. They are in transition, but are they going in the [more...] ...

The next London Plan, with its much higher housing targets, will increase the pressure for higher densities in the suburbs. It could guide high-density housing / mixed-use development to high accessibility locations. The shape of the new strategy will be a key issue for the new London Plan. Issues What is the vision? What should the strategy be? (Speaker: Prof. Tony Travers), and  What would be needed to increase the density of [more...] ...