"Just Space, after publishing the ground-breaking document Towards a community-led plan for London: policy directions and proposals, is following up by working with various parts of City Hall. [Just Space web site.]
"We met with Nicky Gavron, Vice-Chair of the London Assembly Planning Committee and have written in June and October to the Chair, Tony Devenish and to her – most recently sending our critique of the London Infrastructure Plan 2050 which their Committee is discussing. Just Space plans to contribute to future meetings of the committee, especially on the formative ideas for the next London Plan.
"Just Space takes part in the Strategic Housing Market Partnership [a re-naming of the former Strategic Housing Land Availability (SHLA) Methodology Panel ] whose October meeting heard a summary by Elliot Kemp of some of the 6 research projects on housing density which the Mayor’s office had commissioned. These 6 reports are expected to be published later in October. Meanwhile the slideshow from the meeting is here.
"As the London Enterprise Panel is currently going through a review of its purpose and membership, Just Space has asked to meet with the Mayor of London to discuss the opportunity to be represented on the LEP, to give voice to a wider range of interests and concerns and bring in the diverse expertise of the network’s members.
"Just Space Economy and Planning [JSEP] has also recently written to the Mayor of London and the London Enterprise Panel regarding the bid to the Government’s Local Growth Fund, expressing concerns that the proposed funding allocations would not meet the real priorities of London’s diverse enterprises.
"The LEP bid would direct £173m at supporting housing development in the Royal Docks, Housing Zones and on small sites. JSEP emphasised that one of the key pressures facing London’s economy is the severe lack of low-cost accommodation for a wide range of activities, caused by the loss of essential workspace on industrial land and high streets to housing development.
"JSEP suggested that this funding, together with the £110m proposed for high-street regeneration should be used for retaining and increasing workspace capacity to support London’s diverse economic sectors. This would strengthen manufacturing, repair, reuse, recycling, servicing, storage and distribution activities, all of which contribute to local employment and local supply chains, reducing emissions caused by travel to work and deliveries. JSEP argued that supporting these sectors should be one of the key priorities in spending the £30m proposed budget for improving air quality.
"On 5 October the LEP replied as follows:
"Thank you for your letter. I have been asked to respond on behalf of the Mayor."JSEP has also written separately to the Deputy Mayor for Business urging him to engage not only with the financial, business services and property sectors but also with micro and small businesses, independent retailers and ethnic and migrant traders to ensure their needs, priorities and suggestions are taken into account in shaping the GLA’s strategies and investment programmes."
We would like to clarify that Round 3 of the Local Growth Fund will be used for infrastructure to support housing delivery rather than direct housing delivery. One of the Mayor’s main priorities is to tackle the housing crisis by building thousands more homes for Londoners each year. The Mayor has set a target of 50 per cent of new homes to be genuinely affordable and this funding would help support this priority.
We absolutely agree that the fund should be directed at retaining and building low cost workspaces and are already working towards this through the ‘supporting local economies’ strand of our bid which would build on the current London Regeneration Fund. Thank you for also highlighting the report by Latin Elephant which we will definitely review.
Regarding the £30 million earmarked in this bid for air quality, this would help provide investment in a new CNG distribution network and refuse vehicles for local authorities. It will support the local circular economy, including a new ReFood Biomethane plant in Dagenham and a £21 million organic waste facility at the London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP). A new commercial boiler scrappage scheme would help to save around £15m per year off business’ fuel bills. This would be complimented by a new fund for local businesses wanting to do innovative projects that reduce their air pollution footprint.
We are currently recruiting new Members to the London Enterprise Panel (see https://lep.london/apply) and we hope to attract a diverse range of members, as outlined in the application pack, so we would welcome any applications from Just Space network, and would greatly appreciate you sharing this opportunity among the network.
Kind regards, Jamie Izzard, Senior Manager, London Enterprise Panel
PUBLICATIONS
Towards a community-led London Plan: policy directions and proposals,
August 2016 This 74 page intervention is the outcome of more discussion by working teams of JustSpace organisations and another conference, all building on the February document below. Download: Just Space A4 Community-Led London Plan
Towards a community-led London Plan: ideas for discussion and debate. A 24-page document launched in Feb 2016 is here to download. Printing the PDF needs care if the double-page spreads are to work properly. A stock of printed copies is available free for distribution in groups: email us about arrangements for collection.
Economic Evidence Base. The GLA is to be congratulated for having consulted Just Space last year as it drafted its report, and then again after its draft was published in February. At each stage, and in three meetings, the Just Space Economy and Planning Group made clear what it considered to be necessary improvements, though without much detectable impact so far. In May the group submitted a detailed 20-page commentary which is intended to re-balance the “Evidence Base” before it lands on the new Mayor’s desk. The Just Space commentary is here: 160523b JSEP comments on EEB-final
Myfanwy Taylor and Michael Edwards (2016) Just Space Economy and Planning: opening up debates on London’s economy through participating in strategic planning, chapter in Yasminah Beebeejaun (ed) The Participatory City, Berlin: Jovis 76-86
2015:Just Space Economy and Planning group London for all! A handbook for community and small business groups fighting to retain workspace for London’s diverse economies Free download here.Low-resolution pdf
High-resolution pdf Printed copies are also available.
2015: Jessica Ferm and Ed Jones: London’s industrial land: Cause for concern? a working paper from the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, presented to a meeting of the Just Space Economy and Planning Group in 2014 and now online here: Ferm Jones London’s Industrial Land – working paper final
2014: London Tenants Federation and Just Space working with UCL Engineering Exchange Demolition or Refurbishment of Social Housing a report on whether the energy implications of demolishing housing estates are properly considered against upgrading them. Technical report + fact-sheets
2014: Robin Brown, Richard Lee and Michael Edwards contributed a chapter on Just Space to a book edited by Loretta Lees and Rob Imrie, Sustainable London?, published by Policy Press. A version of the Just Space chapter is here Edw Brown Lee 20140308
2014: Staying Put – an anti-gentrification handbook for estates, produced with Southwark Notes and the London tenants Federation http://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/staying-put-an-anti-gentrification-handbook-for-council-estates-in-london/ (Printed copies also available)
2014: Just Space: Building a community-based voice for London planning, based on Barbara Lipietz interviews with Richard Lee and Sharon Hayward in the Journal CITY, free download http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.896654
2013: The London Tenants Federation and Just Space held a conference of people trying to exert some community influence on what happens in London’s Opportunity Areas —the 33 large parts of London where major developments are under way or proposed. It drew on the experiences of campaigners at King’s Cross over 25 years and the results are now published by LTF as an important report: http://bit.ly/1n84K3U
2013: Regeneration Realities Urban Lab Pamphleteer #2 UCL Urban Lab http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/research/urban-pamphleteer/UrbanPamphleteer_2.pdf
2013: a manual / protocol on how activist groups and universities can best work together and avoid disasters and disappointments
2010: Michael Edwards, Do Londoners make their own plan? in K Scanlon and B Kochan (eds) London: coping with austerity, LSE London Series, paperback, 978-0-85328-459-8, chapter 5, 57-71. Eprint free http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/20241/ Whole book is a free download at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSELondon ; also chapter is in German Machen die Londoner ihre eigenegen Pläne?, Luxemburg (4/2010): 72-77 translated by Christina Kaindl Free at http://www.zeitschrift-luxemburg.de/?p=1239</
That's enough Publications. Ed.
No comments:
Post a Comment