Agenda Item
No.
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
COMMUNITY SAFETY AND PLANNING CABINET PANEL
WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2014 AT 10AM
7
DRAFT FURTHER ALTERATIONS TO THE LONDON PLAN AND THE
LONDON INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN 2050
Report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment
Author: Paul Donovan
Tel: 01992 556289
1.
Purpose of report
1.1
To update Panel on latest developments on matters relating to the
ongoing preparation by the Mayor of London on draft Further
Alterations to the London Plan (FALP) and to agree a process for
responding to a consultation by the Mayor on a draft London
Infrastructure Plan to 2050.
2.
Summary
2.1
Following public consultation in Spring 2014 the draft FALP are subject
to examination in September 2014. The County Council is one of 51
local authorities in the wider south east that have raised concerns that
the FALP should make a clearer commitment to delivery of identified
housing need within the Capital and a clear statement that any delivery
failure within London will not need to be remedied in the wider south
east.
2.2
The consultation by the Mayor of London on a London Infrastructure
Plan 2050 (LIP) closes at the end of October. The Hertfordshire
Infrastructure and Planning Partnership is to consider the LIP when it
next meets on 14 October and officers have approached the Local
Enterprise Partnership to establish its position. There is no meeting of
Panel in October at which the outcome of those processes can be
considered. Under these circumstances this report proposes a process
for preparation of a County Council response. Paragraph 5.5 of this
report presents a number of issues that are likely to feature in
discussions. Panel may wish to comment on these or raise other
issues.
3.
Recommendation
That Panel notes the update on the draft Further Alterations to the
London Plan (FALP) and agrees that a County Council response to the
London Infrastructure Plan (LIP) is made by the Chief Executive and
Director of Environment in consultation with the Executive Member for
Community Safety and Planning, informed by the views of
Hertfordshire Infrastructure and Planning Partnership (HIPP), liaison
with the Local Enterprise Partnership and consultation with opposition
spokespersons.
4.
Draft Further Alterations to the London Plan
4.1
The Mayor of London is legally required to keep the London Plan under
review. In the context of evidence available from the 2011 Census and
up-to-date population and household projections, the Mayor has
concluded that the currently approved London Plan is in need of
alteration – to uplift housing targets for London. A consultation on draft
Further Alterations to the London Plan took place in Spring 2014 –
identifying a level of housing need in the next ten years of 49,000 net
additional dwellings per annum. A County Council response to the
consultation was considered by Community Safety and Planning Panel
at its meeting of 6 March 2014. A response primarily raising concerns
that the FALP does not appear to adequately provide for the 49,000
dwellings per annum level of need was subsequently made.
4.2.
Alongside the consultation on the FALP an exchange of letters was
taking place between the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Bedford
Borough Council in which the GLA appeared to suggest that the wider
south east should be prepared to cater for any failure of London to
provide for the anticipated level of need. This prompted a coming
together of 51 wider south east local authorities (they have become
known as the ‘Bedford 51’) to write to the GLA, copied to Government,
seeking confirmation that this is categorically not the case and
requesting that the FALP should be amended to make this clear. Any
role the wider south east might need to play in contributing to meeting
London’s housing needs has to be tackled strategically through a future
full review of the London Plan following meaningful cross-boundary
partnership working. It cannot be allowed to happen in a piecemeal
and adhoc fashion by the back door brought on by delivery failure in
London. All Hertfordshire local authorities are part of the Bedford 51.
Confirmation was subsequently forthcoming from the GLA, but the
issue of how the FALP might be better worded to reflect these
concerns remains unresolved.
4.3
An examination into the FALP is to take place during September 2014.
The Bedford 51 have made written submissions to the examination
setting out specific wording changes to the FALP to address their
concerns. The revised London Plan is scheduled to be published
Feb/March 2015.
5.
London Infrastructure Plan 2050
5.1
The Mayor of London is currently consulting on London’s first long-term
Infrastructure Plan. The document sets out what infrastructure London
requires, how much it might cost and how to pay for it. Some
headlines from the Plan include:
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in January 2015 London’s population will be bigger than it has ever
been before – it will reach 8.6 million people. By 2050 it will reach 11.3
million.
London tops the competitiveness city world rankings, but is ranked 8th
in terms of transportation and infrastructure and 11th in the Green City
Index.
London has already seen considerable investment in its infrastructure
this century – Crossrail, superfast broadband, the overground, Olympic
Park, Lee Tunnel sewer, water mains replacement, provision of
affordable housing, upgrade of St Pancras and King’s Cross Eurostar,
cycle superhighways, upgrade of the tube system.
But as London gets bigger it will need better infrastructure - London’s
broadband networks offer inconsistent levels of service, there is a
challenge to keep up with housing demand, forecasts show the public
transport network will become increasingly crowded, without action
there will be a deficit of over half a billion litres of water supply a day by
2050, there is a need to invest in the next generation of flood defences,
the energy system is close to capacity. These pressures generated
four challenges.
Challenge 1 - Infrastructure needed – 1.5 million new homes, 20%
increase in energy supply capacity, 10% more green cover in central
London and town centres, 70% increase in public transport capacity,
high speed digital connectivity, Thames Tideway Tunnel Sewer, an
extra 9000ha of accessible green space, 40 new waste facilities, over
600 more schools and colleges.
Challenge 2 – Where will growth go?
Path 1 – Assuming current policies continue
Path 2 – Increasing densities in locations with good public transport
access
Path 3 – Increasing densities at town centres
Path 4 – Accommodating some projected population growth outside
London and linked by improved radial rail
Challenge 3 – How will we deliver it? - Different people and
organisations are in charge of delivering infrastructure. The Mayor is
convening a new infrastructure board with representation from
infrastructure providers, regulators, engineers, developers and advisers
as well as national, regional and London government.
Challenge 4 – How will we pay for it? – best cost estimates to meet
all infrastructure needs would almost double expenditure as a
proportion of the economy. The total bill is estimated to be in the
region of £1,324 billion. Housing and transport make up three quarters
of the total costs. Such a level of investment needs a combination of
better coordination and integration, better asset utilisation, more use of
data and private capital. More spending powers for London will be key.
5.2
A summary presentation of the Infrastructure Plan can be found at:
https://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/business-economy/vision-andstrategy/infrastructure-plan-2050
The consultation, which closes on 31st October 2014, raises 26 specific
consultation questions, 18 of which relate to the specifics of proposals
to address infrastructure needs of the different sectors and the
remaining covering generic issues such as whether consultees support
the production of an infrastructure plans, which mechanisms should be
used to close the gap in funding, which technological advances should
be assumed and pursued, how can changes to behaviour be achieved
to reduce demand for infrastructure, and so on. The LIP is on the
agenda for the next meeting of the Hertfordshire Infrastructure and
Planning Partnership on 14 October 2014 and the Local Enterprise
Partnership has been approached with a view to establishing its
position. As there is no meeting of Panel scheduled for October, it is
proposed that a County Council response is made by the Chief
Executive and Director of Environment in consultation with the
Executive Member for Community Safety and Planning, informed by
the views of HIPP, liaison with the LEP and consultation with
opposition spokespersons.
5.3
5.4 Most of the specific and generic questions are matters upon which the
County Council neither needs nor is in a position to come to an informed
view. However, there are probably a number of matters which appear to
have particular implications for Hertfordshire. These include:
i.
for the purposes of assessing the potential scale of
infrastructure requirements the LIP has considered 4 potential future
growth scenarios in terms of where spatially future Londoners might live.
Three of these contain growth within London, whilst the fourth sees a
role for the wider south east in potentially providing for one million
people. It is the latter which raises potential concerns for Hertfordshire
as identified ‘potential growth areas’ and ‘major growth to the north of
London’ appear to include Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Watford,
Hatfield, Broxbourne/Waltham Cross/Hoddesdon/Cheshunt and an area
to the west of Stevenage stretching from Hitchin down to Harpenden.
ii.
there are a range of rail infrastructure enhancement proposals
which have implications for the Hertfordshire network. These include:
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Thameslink - 12-car capacity, 24 tph, new links to Cambridge, etc
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West Anglia - more frequency, lengthening, high capacity trains, 4track Lee Valley line with +8tph frequency, Crossrail 2 with 24tph
through core
West Coast - HS2 services, Crossrail extension to Watford
Junction/Tring
Great Northern - 6-car fixed formation high capacity fleet, increased
freq to +4tph
Chiltern – more 8-car trains, new destinations, electrification
Potential works to the Welwyn Viaduct
East-West rail
iii.
there are likely to be around 40 new facilities required in addition
to London’s existing facilities.
5.5
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Subject to the consultation processes set out in paragraph 5.3, a
possible position on the main Hertfordshire-related issues could
include:
support in-principle for the preparation of the LIP.
appreciate that in the absence of a London Plan with a 2050 time
horizon there is a need to explore alternative spatial scenarios for how
London’s future population might be accommodated and what these
might mean for infrastructure.
have very significant concerns that the LIP has made some quite
specific assumptions about potential locations of growth beyond
London outside the statutory planning process and without the
involvement of local authorities beyond the Capital.
it is the London Plan, not the LIP, which is the main vehicle for seeking
a consensus on how London should growth in the future. The next
main long term review of the London Plan is expected to be complete
by 2019/20. Should there be a demonstrable need for the wider south
east to make a contribution to meeting London’s growing population
that process will need to be managed by the London Plan and the
development plan in the wider south east and will require substantial
political and technical collaboration.
in the absence of that engagement (and on the assumption it is unlikely
to happen in the remainder of the process) with local authorities in the
wider south east and in advance of a statutory planning process that
looks at options for growth outside London, all references that point to
specific locations outside London other than in a very generic way –
whether they be text or map-based – be removed from any further draft
of the LIP and do not feature within the published version.
given the scale uncertainty that exists around infrastructure planning
over such a long timeframe and that decisions about infrastructure
provision are made outside of the LIP process, consideration could be
given to transforming it into a living process – perhaps web-based that can be regularly updated to take account of changing
circumstances – for example, new technical evidence, the publication
of the FALP, Government decisions on the location on new runway
capacity in the south east, and so on.
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that the proposals for improvements to the rail network running through
Hertfordshire need to be the subject of further on-going consideration
and discussion with relevant responsible bodies to ensure the interests
of Hertfordshire are recognised.
Hertfordshire will expect the 40 additional waste management facilities
estimated to be required being provided within London.
given the inevitable cross-boundary nature of some of the future
infrastructure requirements of London and the wider south east there is
a need for a much greater level of co-operation on infrastructure
issues. The preparation of the LIP and the suggestion above that the
LIP become a ‘live’ process might usefully facilitate that wider on-going
dialogue.