Localism in London

This morning I chaired the latest Future of London session looking at the impact that the Coalition's localism agenda could have on planning in London. A big thanks to SNR Denton for hosting the session, as well as our panel - Colin Wilson (GLA), Stephen Hill (C20 Futureplanners/RICS), David Cox (SNR Denton) and Simon Bevan (LB Southwark).

Some of the main themes and findings emerging from the session included:

- We need a clearer definition of what we mean by local in different contexts. Some schemes will be local to specific neighbourhoods, other more strategic schemes (such as the proposed High Speed Rail link raised by our colleague from LB Camden) will, in some senses, be local to London as a whole, as well as to those communities affected by its development;

- Linked to this, there are London-specific tensions to be considered. For example, London is a major national and international centre of economic and social activity. The planning system needs to be flexible enough to accomodate both local community engagement and strategic "big picture" decision making; and

- Without the appropriate level of capacity and resources to help drive community-led planning, efforts to engage individuals or communities are unlikely to succeed. Greater community involvement in the shaping of places can lead to increased quality of outputs, but not unless authorities are able to invest in providing the required levels of information, and effectively managing the engagement of the community.

For more information you can find Stephen Hill's and David Cox's presentations from the morning here and here, with Colin Wilson from the GLA's to follow. Furthermore, Stephen Ashworth - a consultant at SNR Denton - has put together this Policy in Focus Paper providing an overview of proposed planning reform and some implications for practitioners.

A few of FoL's Rising Stars were in attendance this morning, so look out also for their views on the session in the next couple of days.

Ben H
FoL