Just Space Conference 15.3.14: Opportunity Area Workshop notes
Individual statements have been anonymised because permission had not been
obtained to attrbute them.
Kay Pallaris (KP)
Charlie Clemoes (CC)
George Turner
Unaffiliated former student
UCL Urban Studies MSc
Campaigner in Lambeth; Interested in Vauxhall/Nine
Elms, Battersea OA
Clare Moore (CM)
London Tenants Federation; South Lambeth
Cecil Sagoe (CS)
UCL PhD student in Geography; working with Our
Tottenham
Shirley Hanazawa (SH)
Our Tottenham
Mara Ferreri (MF)
Queen Mary University student
Jessica Buck (JB)
Camden Tenants Association and Distict Management
Committee
Pat Turnbull (P)
Housing Association tenant; Chair Hackney Tenants
Association; member of London Tenants Federation
Jenny Robinson (JR)
Professor of Geography, UCL
Martin Stumpler
From Dresden; conducting research in Tottenham on
changes in governance structures
Amina
Blackfriars
Shimaa (S)
Active in Blackfriars
Dolly Mace (DM)
London Tenants Federation; Bermondsey Tenants
Association
Ewa Szymczyc (ES)
Graduate of UCL Bartlett School of Planning;
active in
Polish grassroots movement
Jasmin Pack (JP)
North Southwark TA
Lucy Rogers (LR)
City Fringe OA
Daniela Muñoz (D)
UCL student; Architect; working in Old Oak
Michael Edwards
UCL / JustSpace / formerly KXRLG
* Bishopsgate / City Fringe OA
No reference to what the area is actually like; OA plans appear to have been
drawn up in an office
Started without a public consultation
There ought to be adequate consultation before they are handed over to
private developers
No care is taken
*
OAs tend to be big areas that are fairly empty, places where the mayor’s plan
wants to do big things
Policy 2.13 of the plan, absolutely unchanged
2 changes have occurred in the alterations:
 New OAs have been outlined
 The targets for populations and jobs in existing OAs have been
increased. (Annexe to plan)
* How much consideration of the impacts on the economy?
Increases in density cause land prices to increase??
page 1 of 5
This causes speculation, where landowners hold on to land rather than
developing it
OAs seem to work to open up parts of London so that vast international
capital flows can access London
Vauxhall: New tower exhibition at 12-20 Wyvil Road. which was given
permission with the agreement that 40%of houses would be affordable, the
company has since sought to renege on this agreement due to the (alleged)
decreased likelihood of realising the assumed profits.
In the market they would go bust, why are we subsidising their mistake?
Perhaps compulsory purchase powers should be used on these
developments that try to renege on their agreement
* How well known are OAs? I am not aware of them in my borough of Camden
*
In Camden there is King’s Cross, Euston (HS2) and West Hampstead (Railway
lines coming out there)
Camden is not that affected
Tottenham Court Road: High density reconstruction
* How do we get someone to speak to us about these OAs
We only find out about demolition from the local news (for instance the SE1
website)
* In high end developments like Neo-Bankside there are often only 6 lights on at
night
It is a hollow development.
There will be a number of these across London, for instance in Chelsea.
This is what we are having to lose our home to
Economic and social cleansing is concealed by the call for intensification
Blackfriars is to be turned into a boulevard
Resident of Neo-Bankside made contact on the website “It’s a bit lonely here”
they said.
*
The problem with OA planning is that it is meant to be a joint operation between
the boroughs, the mayor and landowners
* A Southwark Council planning document states: “Tall buildings are inappropriate”
and yet this is what is being built
* Maybe it’s worth spelling out who the "opportunity" is for, opportunity for whom.
Is there something that might empower residents to find out more about the
OAs in their local area and what it might need an OA designation for?
Where is the evidence that informs the neighbourhood plan and the OAPF?
What’s wrong with the area? Why is it an OAPF?
* These OAs are essentially economic green glints, there is nothing wrong with the
housing; these are just attractive areas for property development.
(Economic) Opportunity Area
page 2 of 5
*
In a new development on site at Potters Fields near City Hall it is £1m for a one
bedroom flat and £8m for a three bedroom flat
*
Draft City Fringe OAPF uses a quote from 1850 to highlight its decline “A
concentration of all the miseries in the city”
No correlation between development and solving deprivation
Is there even enough time to effect the process by the time the OAPF is
released or even to comment?
* Every OA has / should have an OAPF
The document is also sometimes referred to as a supplementary planning
document
At the back of the London Plan in Annexe 1 the OAs and the stage at which
they are at is stated.
This should be the first place to look when interested in where in your locality
is affected by an OA.
This section gives housing and employment targets
Opportunity for whom is an important point
* Local authorities make a claim that the area is in decline.
Their first work is involved in trashing the image of the area.
Urban Pamphleteer #2: Regeneration Realities highlighted this - nb copies
available free, or download,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/news/UrbanPamphleteer2RegenerationRealiti
es
*
Each plan has a phase in which problems are identified, this evaluation phase is
very important
* has made this proposal to earlier London Plan reviews but it has never been
accepted.
* Elephant and Castle
SPD consultation with people who had access to information still ended badly
with Southwark Council ignoring their commitments to policies.
Communities should address the consultation but they should also try to
name and shame
Energy should be put elsewhere.
*
How many people do you have in your complex at Blackfriars Rd?
* 50
* That should be enough to organise.
Try to get a high profile
Make it as difficult as possible for Southwark
* We have got media people
* The more people you get involved besides residents the better (traders etc).
page 3 of 5
*
Because the problem with all this is that central London is losing a fantastic
workforce; where are they displaced to?
The question should be asked: what would be affordable?
* Every borough is supposed to have a housing needs assessment or it may be
called Housing Market Assessment (SHMA)
Plans are supposed to meet these needs.
Nine boroughs are taking a legal case against the mayor on this subject
*
In conversation with an architect working on buildings in my local Streatham
admitted the expected life of the buildings being built here is 30 years
* In the case of Our Tottenham we have benefitted from a broad network, and
speak as a network.
* as the density guidelines in the opportunity areas increase, this increases land
prices (because you can get more high value housing in the same space.
The financial viability test is that the development should produce a greater land
value than the land in its existing use.
This should be relatively easy in opportunity areas which are often full of lower value
land uses. It is also easier when you allow higher densities as the development
should produce more value.
Therefore in opportunity areas we should be particularly strict on building affordable
housing. My comment was that we needed some sort of greater control in
opportunity areas of the economic changes which the london plan opens up
* We need to introduce a word other than "affordable".
* We should keep the concept of social housing alive.
The Mayor wants to stick to the word affordable for specific reasons.
* There is market rent but there is not a market wage
* OAs are not meeting the stated goals
What is being changed in this version of the London Plan?
 Housing
 If they are not delivering the type of houses and social infrastructure
requirement then they should be
* There is also the hitherto unmentioned OA obligation to create jobs
*
Not to mention the change in land use and employment levels with the overproduction of residential use a concern.
*
In my experience in King’s Cross we have seen the loss of 1000s of jobs in
unglamorous sectors.
Jobs requiring cheap space.
These have been replaced by banking, Google, and University buildings
page 4 of 5
Old Oak specialises in second hand car sales and scrap dealing, what will
happen to this?
* As Robin mentioned in the initial part of the conference, how do you create jobs?
You can only create (in the planning system) land and floorspace allocations
which permit job opportunities.
* Light industry appears to have declined
There is nowhere to house the jobs that support the new jobs that are being
created.
Railway arches appear to be the only places that are safe from this.
*
In fact in Hackney even these places have been emptied to be replaced by
fashion retail.
* Issue of housing for whom
Policy statements on OAs isn’t open review
In the European-wide demonstrations we have had some involvement in the
London delegates took Heygate and Woodberry Down as examples
These were the two great London scandals
*
Is it worth badgering councillors because elections are approaching?
* Yes.
* OAPF progress – the numbers in the document denoting stage of progress on
each OAPF do not appear to be explained (that's not true: the numbers are a code,
explained in the text just before the table, page 297 M.E.)
note by Charlie Clemoes
page 5 of 5