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Jenrick orders further changes to draft London Plan
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has ordered that further changes be made to Sadiq Khan’s draft London Plan nine months after sending a scathing letter blocking the plan being published in its current form.
Mr Jenrick has written to the London mayor laying out two further directions on top of the 11 he already imposed when he prevented Mr Khan from publishing the plan in March this year.
The first direction concerns an amendment to the plan’s policy on industrial land.
It requires that in “exceptional circumstances”, boroughs considering the release of green belt or metropolitan open land to accommodate housing need may consider the reallocation of industrial land instead.
In his letter to Mr Khan, the housing secretary said the amendment is “in light of the profound impact COVID-19 is having on London” and said the policy would give boroughs “greater freedom to consider the use of industrial land in order to meet housing needs”.
Second, the housing secretary directed that changes be made to the draft London Plan’s policy on tall buildings in a way in which he said will “strengthen the policy to ensure such developments are only brought forward in appropriate and clearly defined areas, as determined by the boroughs whilst still enabling gentle density across London”.
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The directions come nine months after Mr Jenrick used his powers to order that the new London Plan, which outlines the mayor’s spatial development strategy for the capital, cannot be published until it has incorporated changes laid out by the government.
In a scathing letter sent to Mr Khan at the time, Mr Jenrick made a number of criticisms of the plan, including of its “over-restrictive stance” on industrial land and its focus on “one-bed flats at the expense of all else”.
In yesterday’s letter, Mr Jenrick said that government officials have “worked constructively” with the mayor’s officers “to find a way through the detail of ensuring that the London Plan will be consistent with national planning policy”.
He said: “I am pleased that you share my sense of urgency in getting the London Plan published.
“I would be grateful if you could re-submit your Intention to Publish version of the plan with amendments that address the 11 previous directions and the two additional directions. I will then be in a position to formally agree to the publication of the London Plan.”
The letter comes ahead of the London mayoral election in May next year, after this year’s vote was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Mr Khan has previously said that he plans to make the election a “referendum on rent controls”, arguing that if he is re-elected the government should give him the power to freeze private rents in the capital.
Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey recently announced that he would fund 100,000 shared ownership homes if elected in May.
