A DIFFERENT KIND OF LONDON – FOR PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES. A MANIFESTO FROM JUST SPACE FOR THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON
You can’t just build, or do, what you want where you want – it has to comply with Planning Policy which is set locally – and these Local Plans must comply with the instrutions and policies of Central Government. This document is about having policies which are for the benefit of people and communities of London rather than for global capital and investors.
Over the last 30 years London has been booming.
When I did my Master Degree, just over 30 years ago, we were being taught about ‘Counter-Urbanisaion; – that is our cities loosing population and jobs in favour of our smaller towns and places.
That has changed. Most of our cities have gained population and jobs over the last 30 years, at least in the centre of the cities anyway.
London’s population has grown by over 40 % since 1990.
Its population is now at 9.7 million.
Yet in that time only one new large park has been created.
There is an acute shortage of affordable housing.
Over 300,000 council homes have been lost through ‘Right to Buy’ and a programme of demolition of council estates.
60,000 families are in temporary accomodation, including 74,000 children, with 300,000 households on the borough’s waiting lists.
Housing prices have risen to eye-watering levels.
London has been hollowed out and no longer has a range of land uses that enables a range of business and employment, nor allowing homes for all to be built.
Vital services such as schools, libraries, doctors surgeries and youth centres, and community spaces have been forced out and are dissapearing.
In short London is becoming less and less for Londoners – and more and more for the world’s international investors, including dirty money. And even fairly well off ordinary Londoners and London businesses can’t afford to be in London.
A network of hundreds of grass roots organisations has drawn up a Manifesto for how they want to see London being planned for Londoners and its communities instead of for global capital and international investors. They have worked with academics and students from University College London.
London’s previous Plans have assumed that if we just build, build, build all will be well, but the past 30 years has shown that this is not true.
This has resulted in development crowding more and more into the same space, and this hasn’t decreased prices – it has actually increased them.
London requires new, differant solutions and a differant approach, and this Manifesto sets this out.
I won’t detail the whole of the Manifesto (the link to it is here – https://justspace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/just-space-2024-manifesto-final.pdf )
In brief:
The concentration in The London Plan of lots of privately developed homes has increased the price of homes, is forcing ordinary Londons out, and is removing land for jobs and employment – especially jobs that Londoners can do locally.
Real Estate and business interests dominate the Planning Process whilst ordinary citizens are often treated with contempt.
London needs to focus on what we used to call Council Homes; and we should use public land to build these on – not sell it off for commercial development.
Right to Buy should be abolished.
Tenants must be given more rights so they are secure in their homes.
Estate redevelopment must be stopped; and we must retrofit and ugrade instead of wide scale demolition.
Viability Testing must be abolished – it enables developers to ignore Planning Policy, and just increases land prices.
Local Communities must be involved in a meaningful way in the Planning and development of London.
Town Centres must become centres of production, identity, and care.
We must protect street markets.
We must have low-cost workspaces.
The total amount of land for industry must not decrease (much is being lost to housing).
Parks, open spaces and biodiversity must be built into development and actually be delivered.
London must be co-produced by its people and communities. There must be Inclusion, Fairness and Justice. Communities must be involved, in a meaningful way, in the Planning Process.
London must be a healthy, caring and local City. People must have more power by communities owning wealth as a community. Care should be local, with care and food hubs on every high street.
Neighbourhoods must be designed to cater for all and every age group, so people can be born, grow up through adulthood and into old age, in all of London’s places.
London has become too obsessed with tall buildings and building to high densities. All this has done is to launch and support a speculative bubble and has not delivered affordable homes (for either sale or to rent). Tall, high density buildings wherever developers want them must be stopped.
Finally a declaration of interest: If you look at the inside back cover, you will see that I am named as a contributor to the Manifesto.
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Steven Boxall
Political Education Officer