The London Assembly has announced that it has published a series of letters and outputs to the Mayor, which are aiming to make sure that the next version of the London Plan is able to support all of the city’s communities.
The plan will see the next 20-25 years of development across the city outlined, with this underpinning the Mayor Sadiq Khan’s vision for Good Growth. This will also see the policies that are set out in the plan informing planning application decisions across the city.
As part of the process, the Assembly’s Planning and Regeneration Committee investigates how planning can influence, both positively and negatively, the ways that people interact with the capital, with some of the areas included in the investigation being:
- Architectural design of social housing
- What the idea of the 15-minute city would look like in London
- How planning can help ‘design-out’ crime in London’s communities
- How planning decisions can impact disabled people
- How the built environment can impact women and girls
After conducting these investigations, the committee found that, despite important work already being carried out to address some of these issues, more work can be done to make London more inclusive for all communities. Recommendations to address these challenges and make sure that all Londoners see improvements to their safety and wellbeing include:
- Explicitly referencing the importance of gender-diverse spaces in the next London Plan, with standalone guidance on the creation of these being prepared by the Greater London Authority.
- Giving developers, local authorities, and planning authorities guidance that they can follow as they go through the design process.
- The creation of a training programme for Building Control Officers, with this helping to make sure that they know to have developments comply with London Plan policies on accessibility.
Chair of the Planning and Regeneration Committee, Sakina Sheikh AM, commented:
“The London Plan plays a pivotal role in making London accessible and safe.
“Our committee’s work programme covered a number of areas specifically focussed on improving the lives of Londoners through inclusive design.
“From the relationship between design and crime, to the impact of planning decisions on disabled people, our work highlighted a number of key areas that could be improved in future iterations of the London Plan.
“Our recommendations are based on the evidence we heard across all of our investigations, where we heard from experts across various fields to help shape our suggested improvements.
“We heard of some fantastic work being done to make London a more inclusive, accessible city. However, we also heard of the challenges many communities still face today.
“Our recommendations will not solve every challenge, but they will go some way to ensuring a more joined up approach to design and planning, and putting Londoners at the heart of how the city is designed in the future.”
Image credit: iStock
