Written Evidence Submitted by Councillor Andrew Wood [FPS 137]

Written evidence submitted by Councillor Andrew Wood [FPS 137] I am the Councillor for Canary Wharf ward in Tower Hamlets, east London, it has the highest and densest new build residential developments in western Europe, so we have a rather unique perspective on planning. We do not have a problem in delivering lots of new homes, we deliver more than our fair share but the problems we have are indicative of other issues with the existing and proposed new planning system. My ward occupies about 40% of the Isle of Dogs and South Poplar area which is the single most important small growth area in the United Kingdom in terms of housing and jobs. For example, the GLA has a Maximum growth forecast for an additional 49,000 homes + 110,000 jobs in this small area. I also helped found the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Planning forum, the largest in the country based on population size, circa 40,000 people. Our 2nd attempt at a Neighbourhood Plan goes to referendum next May 2021. The Isle of Dogs and South Poplar area is likely to be tasked to deliver 1.04% of the governments new housing targets in an area you can walk across in thirty minutes and therefore merits special consideration. That % is likely to increase given political complaints elsewhere in England and an unwillingness to confront the green belt. Tower Hamlets Council does not complain about its targets unlike some others. But it has had more development than any other part of the UK and Tower Hamlets has been the fastest growing local authority for at least the last twenty years and is the number one recipient of New Homes Bonus in the country every year, £189 million since 2011. Canary Wharf itself until COVID struck was also the most important deliverer of new office space in the country. In 2021 in my ward, the 75 storey Landmark Pinnacle (239 meters tall with 984 apartments), the 68 & 56 storey South Quay Plaza (1,284 apartments), the 60 storey Newfoundland (575 apartments) and the 55 & 50 storey Wardian (756 apartments) will all complete construction within ten minutes’ walk of each other along Marsh Wall road, while walking between them you can admire the 63 storey Consort Place (634 apartments + hotel) under construction plus four short 42-44 storeys towers going up at Millharbour Village (1,513 apartments). You can see them from many parts of London. But for some odd reason, awareness of the scale of that development here is low nationally except for Westferry Printworks (1,524 apartments) also in my ward due to the scandal it caused. But buildings of this height and density are in part because of the green belt forcing development upwards because London cannot grow outwards. But that density brings different problems especially related to affordability, quality and infrastructure. These buildings are very complex mechanisms, some break often, are poorly managed, expensive to purchase, expensive to service and expensive to live in due to monopoly situations. They are too often not fit for purpose as homes but do have amazing views. Working from Home will impact office demand at Canary Wharf so it is likely that demand for new build residential will decline for the next few years although the history of the Isle of Dogs suggests that development will return in a few years. My other fundamental concern is that no planning system designed to cover England can effectively cover an area whose peers are not Whitstable or even Manchester but Manhattan, Hong Kong, Pudong and Dubai. And the rural focus in the consultation does not reflect the fact that many of the new homes in England will be in urban areas. So, the new planning system has to retain some flexibility to allow these very different areas to respond to local and unique issues. If you are interested, we can offer you a very interesting tour of this area, including tea and biscuits in the tallest hotel in London. We are only 17 minutes from Westminster by Jubilee line. 1. Is the current planning system working as it should do? What changes might need to be made? Are the Government’s proposals the right approach? No, I do not believe the current system works. My area is clearly delivering the new homes we need in England but they are not affordable to normal people with normal jobs and we lack the infrastructure to support it (oddly despite generating huge amounts of s106 cash, CIL (£77 million in my ward alone), New Homes Bonus (£189 million so far) and in fact the local authority are closing existing facilities (the 116 year old local library) or not investing in a local 54 year old leisure center which may never re- open. So, we are losing infrastructure rather than seeing it increase in proportion to the population growth. It is the gap between those new homes and the supporting social infrastructure which is the greatest failure of the current system. They need to be planned together at the same time and the Local Plan needs to also be an Infrastructure Plan whereas often it is an afterthought or a separate process. We need some mechanism to look at wider social infrastructure needs at the same as planning applications are submitted, which our local Neighbourhood Plan tries to achieve through an Infrastructure Impact Assessment. It uses widely available criteria about the recommended number of for examples Doctors per head of population or swimming pool capacity again per head of population. It then applies those ratios to new developments and if there is a gap in capacity it expects that the developer will offer one or more of those categories of infrastructure to help fill gaps. If all developments did that then across an area you will have the right mix of supporting infrastructure whether schools, community centres, sports halls, swimming pools, playgrounds, etc. In many areas local authorities do not own enough public land on which to deliver new social infrastructure, we need new developments to help deliver them. So, I support changing the current system but am not convinced either that it will deliver much actual change nor increase build rates nor solve the infrastructure problem I outline. The cladding scandal shows that the quality of new build is also deeply suspect. We have endemic problems with many tall buildings which I detail below. We also have a problem with the planning system in Tower Hamlets whereby Council officers make the decision whether to approve or reject an application. They then present a report as to why Councillors should approve or reject a scheme with all of the evidence marshalled to support their view. They do not present a neutral report with pros and cons of a scheme allowing Councillors to weigh up the evidence and to make the final decision. This maybe because too many of those Councillors are clearly not prepared for meetings, have not read the reports nor understand the policies, do not know the area and look to others for guidance and therefore cannot be trusted to make decisions without clear guidance. Ironically and in retrospect the London Docklands Development Corporation, a government quango did a better job than the democratic Tower Hamlets Council has done in recent years. So, it is not always true that democratic control of the planning system produces better outcomes although some other local authorities have done a very good job like Barking and Dagenham. Homes of Multiple occupation are a big problem locally as result in the loss of family homes and income for the local authority. For example, within 10 minutes’ walk of where I live a single person (not trading as an organisation) has bought over 100 family sized homes often adjoining each other, 3 and 4 bed in size and then converted them into bedsits using multiple individual planning applications to make each of them as big as possible. In one area he has joined their back gardens so that students inside can party together. An estate of family homes has become a student hostel. The planning system cannot track properly a large increase in residents which has an impact on utilities and transport. The local authority has greater call on its resources but no extra Council tax. And no extra income from s106, CIL, New Homes Bonus etc. And we also lose families and therefore children from our area. I suspect the new planning system will make that worse. 2. In seeking to build 300,000 homes a year, is the greatest obstacle the planning system or the subsequent build-out of properties with permission? The greatest obstacle is the willingness / ability of people and investors to buy new build property and for investors to invest in property in the expectation that they can make a return. In Tower Hamlets much of that demand is from investors, foreign and domestic so demand is driven by external factors like the willingness to invest in the UK, foreign exchange rates, perceived risks in their domestic home territories, taxes and other alternative investment opportunities. Much of the recent investment comes from Asian companies and families. The typical purchaser might be a dentist in Singapore, raising a mortgage to buy an off-plan property in London, which they intend to rent out as part of a long term investment strategy. For others it maybe building a safe base in a safe jurisdiction. If that demand is there, then buildings can be completed quickly. In 2015 on a sales tour in Asia, all 330 apartments at Baltimore Wharf where sold at the beginning of the tour in Singapore.

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