London business group calls for simplified planning rules and reduced obligations

The report (32-page / 1.4 MB PDF) also recommended the creation of a specialist advisory team to support development at the OAs.

The report addressed the challenges facing London's 38 OAs, which are brownfield sites allocated for up to 303,000 new homes and 575,000 new jobs in the London Plan.

The report said that the necessary experience to manage large and complex phased development is often lacking in London's borough councils and recommended that the Greater London Authority (GLA) set up a specialist advisory team to assist the relevant boroughs with the planning and delivery of OA development.

The report said the mayor of London should ensure strategic development plans are quickly put in place for the 18 OAs currently lacking a development framework. It also said the mayor should require boroughs to adopt local development orders speeding up the planning process by providing up front approval for development fitting specific criteria within individual OAs.

The report said that once planning frameworks are in place the proposed GLA advisory team should help councils to prepare more detailed business plans for each OA, including clear timetables, costs and funding strategies and taking account of the infrastructure required.  

It said specialist advice on land values and site preparation costs for OA sites would enable councils to set appropriate affordable housing requirements, community infrastructure levy rates and section 106 obligations. It recommended a zero-rated CIL for strategic development sites requiring considerable infrastructure investment and called for councils to adopt a flexible approach to planning obligations based on the economic viability of development.

The report proposed several measures to provide potential investors and developers with more information about the relative development challenges facing different OAs. The report recommended the introduction of a 'traffic light' system categorising each of the OAs depending on the amount of specialist assistance likely to be required to meet its development needs.

On an initial assessment, London First place the Upper Lee Valley and Bexley Riverside OAs in its proposed 'red' category, reflecting substantial challenges, high infrastructure needs and cross-boundary working. A further 17 of the OAs, including those at London Riverside, Greenwich Peninsula and Old Oak and Park Royal, are deemed to require "significant guidance and assistance" from the proposed GLA advisory team and placed in the 'amber' category.

The report recommended a dedicated online portal to enable developers and potential investors to track and the progress and status of development at each OA. The report also called for the production of individual infrastructure delivery plans for each OA and say central government should provide financial and policy support to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is delivered.

Planning expert Jo Miles of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "It's widely accepted that OAs have a central role to play in meeting the capital's housing needs. With their strategic policy designation rooted in the London Plan, the report recommends further steps the GLA should take to support boroughs develop the local policy context and facilitate developers in bringing forward development."

"Legal interventions already available to the mayor include designating mayoral development areas, which he has already done for the Lower Lea Valley and Old Oak and Park Royal OAs, and promoting compulsory purchase orders, which the GLA is currently doing to support development in the Southall OA.  Developers and boroughs alike will be watching with interest to see whether the mayor will adopt some or all the recommendations made in this report," said Miles.