The Need for a City-Regional Approach
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Strategic Planning for London and the Wider South East the need for a city-regional approach Duncan Bowie sets out the context for the Special Section on Strategic Planning for the London and Wider South East region Network Rail The planning of London and the Wider South East is a matter of national significance, especially post-Brexit The articles in this special feature have been written other policy proposals relating to strategic planning by members of the London and Wider South East in the London city region. Strategic Planning Network. The network was The starting point of the group’s discussions was established in early 2017 and grew out of the TCPA that the planning of London had to take into account Policy Council’s London and South East Task Group. the relation of London to its hinterland, and that The original task group produced a series of articles strategic planning in the Wider South East had to for a special feature in the August 2016 edition of have regard to London. The existence of the Mayor Town & Country Planning. The group was then of London as a regional planning authority within restructured to include a number of academics who the London administrative boundary did not in itself had been engaged in research on the subject, as generate a city-regional approach. The abolition of well as practising planners who had been engaged SERPLAN1 in 2000 left the Mayor of London in a in previous consultations on the London Plan and position in which he had to liaise with nearly 100 Town & Country Planning October 2018 1 Strategic Planning for London and the Wider South East different statutory planning authorities in the wider given his concerns as to both the quantity and the city region, and the inter-regional forum which quality of housing output achievable through operated until 2010 proved ineffective. densification, while at the same time he called for The abolition of regional planning structures more collaborative planning between the Mayor outside this boundary in 2010-11 increased the and neighbouring planning authorities. However, difficulty of city-regional planning as the strategic the then Minister, Brandon Lewis, rejected any planning structures for the South East and the East suggestion that a formal structure for city region of England regions were dismantled. The ‘duty to planning should be established or that SERPLAN co-operate’ arrangements introduced in the 2011 should be re-established. Localism Act have proved to be an inadequate Although both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan substitute for the pre-existing regional planning have sought to improve collaborative planning system, while the Local Enterprise Partnerships discussions with Home Counties districts and were not given an explicit role in the statutory unitary planning authorities and their representative planning framework. groupings at both political and officer level, as While successive Mayors of London have sought described in Corinne Swain’s article in this Special to demonstrate that London planning can move Section, the draft of the 2020 London Plan still forward on the basis of the compact-city principle seeks to pursue the compact-city approach and advocated by Lord Rogers and others, London has meet London’s needs for both housing and failed to meet its own housing needs, while other employment growth within the London administrative aspects of strategic planning – including transport boundary. This objective, taken together with the planning, employment and retail growth and need to protect London’s employment capacity and location, parking provision, waste disposal, and a the policy to protect the Green Belt within the range of environmental planning issues – have London administrative boundary from development, demonstrated points of conflict between both the has generated a focus on densification as the only requirements and the policies of different planning means to respond to the actual and forecast growth authorities within the wider city region. in London’s population, projected at the time the draft London Plan was published at a significantly higher level than was the case when the 2015 London Plan was adopted. ‘This approach to chasing the This approach to chasing the housing numbers housing numbers has has disregarded the social consequences of the compact-city approach, notably in terms of whether disregarded the social the housing built at higher densities, and often in consequences of the compact- the form of high-rise developments, is appropriate city approach, notably in terms in terms of size, type, built form and affordability for the range of housing needs in London. The of whether the housing built densification approach has not significantly increased at higher densities, and often the number of new homes built each year, even if planning consents have increased. The approach in the form of high-rise also ignores the inflationary impact of densification developments, is appropriate on land and property prices, both residential and in terms of size, type, built form non-residential, never mind the impact on London’s landscape and skyscape. and affordability for the range The network’s discussions have had a number of of housing needs in London’ dimensions. The first element has been the need for an evidence base relating to the wider city region. While the evidence base for planning within London is extensive, it is by no means comprehensive, and These problems have been explicit at successive there is a sad lack of data which is consistent London Plan Examinations in Public (EiPs), while across the wider city region. This is partly there have also been conflicts in relation to the attributable to the winding up of the two regional Mayor’s response to consultation by Home planning bodies. The failure to agree on population Counties planning authorities in relation to their projections and inter-regional migration data for the Local Plans, often in relation to whether or not 2014 London Plan EiP demonstrated that these authorities should be making contributions to technical issues have significant implications for meeting London’s housing requirements. strategic planning. Corinne Swain’s article reviews In his report on the London Plan EiP in 2014, the some of the current deficiencies and the efforts Inspector questioned whether the compact-city taken so far to fill in some of the gaps and puts approach to London planning remained viable, forward a proposal for further collaborative work. 2 Town & Country Planning October 2018 Strategic Planning for London and the Wider South East The second element in the network’s discussions, It is hoped that these articles, together with the which follows from the first, has been the case for continuing work of the London and Wider South giving consideration to strategic planning East Strategic Planning Network, will help to development options different from the compact- generate a wider understanding of the need for city- city self-containment option assumed in all the pre- regional planning at various levels within national, existing versions of the London Plan since 2004 and regional and local government and among planning in the proposed new London Plan. The London Plan practitioners and other interested parties. In the review process, despite the Integrated Impact short term, it is hoped that the forthcoming London Assessment scoping report,2 has not fully considered Plan EiP will give greater consideration to these alternative spatial options, and, moreover, the IIA’s issues than has been the case at previous EiPs. analysis of the social impact of the proposed However, our objective is somewhat wider, as compact-city densification approach is seriously these issues impact on planning across the city deficient. region and it is important that national government The London Plan process has not considered the recognise that their resolution cannot be achieved relationship of London’s growth to that of the rest of solely through voluntary collaboration between the the UK, or the options for planned population planning authorities in the London city region; and dispersal – including the potential for new ‘garden that the planning of London and the Wider South communities’ in the Wider South East, the potential East is a matter of national significance, especially in for extensions to Home Counties towns, or the the post-Brexit context – and consequently a matter possibility of urban extensions to London’s existing which requires both the attention and the support of built-up area, whether in the Green Belt or within or Ministers and senior civil servants at national level, beyond the existing London boundary. The London not just within the Ministry of Housing, Communities Plan discounts the work of Transport for London on and Local Government, but across the whole of the London Infrastructure Plan 2050,3 more recent government. work on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford (CaMKOx) growth arc and by the UK Innovation ● Duncan Bowie is Senior Research Associate at the Bartlett Corridor Partnership, developed from the former School of Planning, University College London, and Convener of London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough growth the London and Wider South East Strategic Planning Network. area, the proposals from URBED in relation to the e: [email protected] The views expressed are personal. Western Wedge,4 and the work of consultants AECOM on city regional planning.5 Notes The London Plan fails to consider which, or 1 The London and South East Regional Planning which combination of, a range of possible strategic Conference – a regional planning forum in the South East, established in the early 1960s and in operation development options is most sustainable in economic, until 2000. It was constituted by the London borough social and environmental terms. Some of these councils and the county, unitary and district councils options were discussed in my article ‘Beyond the in the county areas of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, compact city’, published in Planning in London 18 Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, months ago,6 and so are not repeated here.