Monday 12 March 2018

Mayor Khan must use New London Plan to make capital more resilient

As many of the capital’s property and construction sector gather at MIPIM, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged Mayor Sadiq Khan to use his emerging New London Plan to improve the resilience of London.

Specifically, LCCI wants the Mayor to focus on providing homes to rent for blue light emergency service workers – on derelict land lying within the Green Belt.

In its submission to City Hall’s consultation on the draft New London Plan, LCCI propose the Mayor should formally ‘identify the need’ for emergency service worker housing in the same way that previous Plan reviews concluded there was a specialist need for housing provision for older people and students.

Last year LCCI commissioned mapping of the Metropolitan Green Belt that identified 329 hectares of “brownspace” which could be used to build up to 20,000 homes.

In 2016, LCCI’s report “Living on the Edge: Housing London's Blue Light emergency services found that found over half (54%) of London’s frontline Police, Fire & Paramedic workers were living outside the capital – a stat that remains the case today.

Chief Executive of LCCI, Colin Stanbridge said: “There is potential for the Mayor to enhance the preparedness and resilience of London by moving to secure housing inside London for the emergency workers that serve London.

It is welcome that the draft new London Plan seeks to explore all options to use land throughout the capital efficiently, however that should include an honest assessment of the potential of the derelict, underused or abandoned plots of land that can be found in every borough that straddles the greenbelt.

The Mayor should consider reclassification of such land”.

Other areas that LCCI has highlighted for debate in the draft New London Plan include the lack of fixed river crossings in east London and the widespread use of permitted development rights (PDRs) to convert commercial premises into residential units.

ENDS

Media contact
Katharine Barney
T: +44 (0)20 7203 1897
M: +44 (0)7827 241528
E: kbarney@londonchamber.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR:

1. London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is the capital’s largest and most representative business organisation, with members ranging in size from multi-national companies to SMEs and sole traders.
2. Colin Stanbridge, Chief Executive is available for further comment and interview.
3. LCCI’s Brown for Blue report can be found here
4. The full submission can be found here