Planning, Housing and Regeneration report from City Hall, July 2016
The Mayor has appointed Jules Pipe, currently the Mayor of Hackney, to be his Deputy Mayor for Planning. Jules will take up his position shortly.
In the meantime, I have had a preliminary discussion with the Deputy Mayor for Housing, James Murray. Whilst the Mayor cannot overrule previous decisions of the former Mayor, including those that had already had a ‘stage 1’ ruling from him, it has now been made clear to Barnet Council that the Mayor will be expecting a much higher proportion of affordable homes in planning applications put to the Mayor for approval.
The key to really being able to make progress on this vital issue is the need to make alterations to the London Plan, which sets out the policy framework. We are expecting a draft for consultation in the autumn.
Old Oak Common in West London is one of the biggest regeneration sites in the capital. I visited this huge site on 14 July with the Regeneration Committee, particularly to look at the HS2 angle- there will now be an HS2 /Crossrail 1 interchange; I have been arguing that HS2 should terminate at Old Oak Common and they confirmed that they could cope with this.
The Regeneration Committee formal meeting was to start our inquiry into the role of culture and regeneration creative placemaking.
Finally, regeneration can lead to strange results in Barnet, where they didn’t seem to know that the new streets in Grahame Park are actually in the borough!
