Future City: Connected, Liveable London

CSB’s Matt Barker looks at plans for London’s future and asks if enough is being done to create the conditions for a bigger, better and sustainable built environment.

London’s importance as a global city, home to more than nine million people and the economic heart of the UK makes its growth and development essential.

But if it is to deliver the bigger, better city we all want, the growth of the capital’s built environment must be planned, sustained, coordinated, socially aware, green and efficient. 

I’m proud to sit on a London Chamber of Commerce group called Connected, Liveable London, a name that neatly captures our vision for the future.

Let’s begin with the green environment. For London, that should mean not just acting on climate change but recognising our global influence and leading on it, so I was excited to learn that we will be hosting the prestigious Ecocity world conference next year.

Then there is the physical environment. What kind of place do we want to live and work in, and for visitors to experience? Key factors include air quality, transport links and road safety.

Lastly, if our housing, workplaces and infrastructure are to be truly joined up, we need a planning system that works for everyone from growing businesses to residents.

A number of initiatives give me encouragement that these issues are being taken seriously.

The latest report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for London as a Global City, which was produced with input from sources including Connected, Liveable London, highlights:

• Innovative infrastructure for encouraging walking and cycling
• Exploring how smart city tech can be deployed to reduce congestion
• Looking at opportunities for innovation in London’s transport network that consider new consumer and commuter behaviours

Meanwhile, the GLA is preparing to update the London Plan in 2024, which I hope will set out a path to coherent, sustainable growth.

https://www.london.gov.uk//what-we-do/planning/planning-london-programme

I have been involved with fellow members of London Chamber in responding to a consultation on the plan. Our pitch to City Hall is largely about the environment as a whole: the places where we live, work, travel and visit.

Firstly, we must tackle the housing crisis, which in the view of our group means introducing rent-to-own schemes and meeting affordable housing targets.

Secondly, we need the infrastructure for new businesses to start up and grow, including better transport design.

More consistency is needed between the ambitions of the Mayor of London and local boroughs to align boroughs’ Local Plans with the next London Plan.

We must ensure innovative, growing businesses are not repelled by obscure and costly planning processes. To contribute to solving that problem, Connected, Liveable London is developing an online guide to the planning process for SMEs.

Freight and CCCs

Growth in London will stimulate construction and freight traffic.

Even if miraculously all freight vehicles were converted to hydrogen overnight, it would do nothing to reduce the number of them plying London’s streets.

Yet reducing freight traffic would deliver many other advantages beyond carbon cutting including improving road safety, easing congestion, enhancing air quality and cutting noise pollution.

The Mayor of London has indicated a desire to work with the industry to find creative solutions to manage freight. That is very welcome, but I’d like more recognition that freight is an important factor in city planning because there’s a sense that currently policy is too heavily weighted towards public transport.

In particular, I would like the London Plan to encourage widespread adoption of Construction Consolidation Centres.  

CCCs cut delivery journeys to and from sites and optimise efficiency not just of transport but of the whole construction process by only delivering materials when they are needed instead of storing them on site.

Instead of being delivered direct to site, large consignments from various suppliers arrive at a distribution hub where they are stored short-term. The contractors then call off smaller batches for delivery as required.

Retiming deliveries to coincide with quieter periods on the roads could reduce the risks of having pedestrians and cyclists competing for space with vans and HGVs. Many cities have rotas setting out when freight movements will be allowed. London’s hauliers are still hampered by the outdated London Lorry Control Scheme, but if this could be modernised to allow deliveries outside busy daytime hours, CCCs would be a key part of the solution.  

CCCs will also contribute to meeting demand from policymakers, developers and end users for greener buildings as part of the strengthening ESG agenda.

And using them makes the construction process more efficient, so developers and contractors are beginning to see their value. It’s time to move the concept of CCCs up the agenda. The last London Plan had a paragraph about consolidation in it. This one should have a page on the subject.