Oxford Street pedestrianisation
On Sunday 21st September, Oxford Street was part closed to traffic. Themed zones featuring fashion, sport, music, food and heritage spanned Orchard Street to Oxford Circus.
The Mayor claimed it a success here but the publicity and novelty of the event were likely to result in many people attending.
TfL will consult on traffic and highways changes for pedestrianisation later in 2025.
For businesses, however, the prospect of an accelerated timeline could add to concerns about logistics and access. Bus routes remain one of the biggest challenges and retailers are [more…]
Reforming Licensing
The government invites views and evidence here UNTIL NOON ON 6TH NOVEMBER 2025 to inform the development of a modern, proportionate and enabling licensing system for alcohol sales. It is to build on the Licensing Taskforce recommendations and the government’s response and to support the Government’s commitment to reduce regulatory burdens by 25% by the end of this Parliament. Responses should be made online.
Planning in London, Issue 135, Oct-Dec 2025
Issue 135 of Planning in London, the journal of the London Planning and Development Forum, has been released, covering the period October-December 2025. London Forum has an agreed subscription arrangement whereby our members may read it, but links are not available on this website.
Our AI-generated summary can be downloaded.
The full edition is not available on the website.
Haringey Social Work
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) reported 1,100 unread emails in Haringey Council’s social work inbox “including 500 police reports”.
Lucia das Neves, the council’s health, social care and wellbeing Cabinet Member said: “We recognise the seriousness of the findings and fully accept that mistakes were made, for which we apologise.”
The death of Baby P in 2007 saw the council heavily criticised over safeguarding failures.
Consultation for next London Plan
The GLA has published an ‘Easy Read’ version here of an earlier ‘Towards a New London Plan‘. It explains the need to deliver more homes and related problems. The consultation seeks views on that and various options for land use, jobs, environment and cultural facilities. London Forum’s members should consider responding by the closing date of 2nd November 2025 to influence the content of the draft replacement London Plan due in 2026.
Housing delivery – THF
The Housing Forum (THF) has published useful reports. One assessed Progress at July 2025 towards 1.5 m new homes target. Another in September 2025 is Barriers to housing delivery. It identifies challenges bringing housing delivery almost to a halt and offers solutions to financial constraints, planning complexities, regulatory pressures, workforce capacity and efficiency of working practices. The Government, the next London Plan and London’s local authorities will need policies to address those issues.
LPAs and Biodiversity
The “Biodiversity Evidence – Better Outcomes from Planning” project of ‘Greenspace Information for Greater London’ aims to understand the challenges, limitations and needs of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in London with regards to taking account of biodiversity early on in the planning process, and to provide resources to help them overcome some of these issues.
Their report can be downloaded from here.
Access to Green Space
CPRE (London) will run a live-stream event on Thursday 25th September 2025 on Inequality in Access to Green Space in London. Tickets are free.
Hogarth roundabout tall building
The ‘Chiswick Calendar’ website reports that residents are taking their objections to a proposed high development alongside Hogarth roundabout at 1 Burlington Lane to the Mayor. They claim it would harm Chiswick House and Grounds, Hogarth’s House, several conservation areas, local views and the Kew WHS Royal Botanical Gardens. Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee gave the development the go-ahead despite only 6% affordable housing.
Blockers and Approvers: Rates of Delegation and Approval for Planning Applications
The Government recently published Planning Statistics for the year to March 2025. For the 32 London boroughs, the statistics showed some interesting features.
First, they showed that all but three boroughs – Camden, Ealing and Harrow delegated decisions to officers on 90% or more of the applications they received; and that 19 of them delegated decisions on more than 98% of applications. Two boroughs – Enfield and Redbridge – delegated decisions on nearly 100% of applications.
Second, rates of approval varied much more widely, from an outlier [more…]
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Blockers and Approvers: Rates of Delegation and Approval for Planning Applications
The Government recently published Planning Statistics for the year to March 2025. For the 32 London boroughs, the statistics showed some interesting features.
First, they showed that all but three [more…]
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Member Services Committee meeting
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🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
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📅 Thu 11th June | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)