British Land : publishes report ‘Meeting London’s Future Needs’

British Land today publishes a report, 'Meeting London's Future Needs', setting out a framework of potential interventions to better plan the future of the capital.

The report, produced by Deloitte Real Estate, follows a series of debates with leading practitioners and thinkers in the London planning and development industries. The independent report, commissioned by British Land, sets out a number of potential ideas to be implemented by the new Mayor of London.

The potential interventions range from the moderate to the radical and immediate to long-term, identifying timescales for delivery, organisations that can lead implementation and where statutory change is required.

Based on the research findings, some of the key ideas set out in 'Meeting London's Future Needs' are:

• Integration of the London Infrastructure Plan and London Plan

Investment in transport infrastructure should be more closely aligned with investment into other services in prioritisation and in statutory policy. Taking this approach, Crossrail 2 becomes the basis for a housing investment programme.

• Extension of the Central Activities Zone

Re-defining the Central Activities Zone would ensure that wider areas of Central London would rethink their potential, helping to increase productivity by expanding job and housing opportunities to reflect improving public transport.

• A genuine public debate about the future shape of London

It is suggested that The Mayor could co-ordinate a public discussion on the future development of London, with particular focus on the Opportunity Areas. This could be aided by the creation of Digital Spatial Plan for London which would harness data to accurately model baseline and future scenarios for densities, heights, massing and land use composition.

• Planning at 'Super City Region' scale

Given that London's economic performance spreads well beyond its boundaries, the Greater London Authority and Mayor could be afforded greater influence on strategic planning across London's employment footprint in the wider South East and East of England. This could sit alongside a National Spatial Strategy, which identifies how London is planned as a Super City.

• Introducing Land Use Zoning to achieve balanced housing delivery

The introduction of a zoning model could provide greater certainty about land values and investment expectations, thereby enable a balanced response to meeting housing needs, including affordable housing and private rented stock. Coupled with improved placemaking skills, this would help London provide long term sustainable communities.

The full report is available here: www.britishland.com/futurelondon

Chris Grigg, Chief Executive, British Land, said: 'London is changing more rapidly than at any time in its history.

'A rebalancing of the economy and unprecedented population growth pose a number of challenges, and we must be bold in addressing these if London is to retain its position as the world's pre-eminent capital city.

'A universal theme of these independent discussions has been the need for collaboration; not just across the public and private sectors, but between business and the people that live and work here. We hope this report proves to be a catalyst for further discussion across all of these groups.'

John Adams, Head of Planning at Deloitte Real Estate, commented: 'Through analysing the findings of a series of highly informed debates, we identified a remarkable consensus that London has reached a critical tipping point where bold decisions and interventions are required to create the capital's future homes and workplaces.

'The participants advocated strong and visionary spatial planning, alongside coordinated public and private investment in infrastructure. A comprehensive vision is needed to take London to its next level.'

Notes to Editors

About British Land
We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London offices. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.7 billion (of which British Land share is £14.4 billion), as valued at 30 September 2015. Our properties are home to over 1,200 different organisations ranging from international brands to local start-ups. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to finance these places effectively.

UK Retail assets account for 51% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 22 million sq ft of retail space across shopping parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 49% of our portfolio is focused on London. We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our Offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.5 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share).

Our industry-leading sustainability strategy is a powerful tool to deliver lasting value for all our stakeholders. By supporting communities, improving environments and growing economies, we create Places People Prefer and enhance long-term returns.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

About Deloitte:
Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ('DTTL'), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.
The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.

For more information, please visit www.deloitte.co.uk

Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

Back to News

British Land Company plc issued this content on 15 March 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 15 March 2016 07:10:01 UTC

Original Document: http://www.britishland.com/news-and-views/news/2016/15-03-2016.aspx