The planning system in London has ‘never been more difficult’, veteran developer Roger Madelin told delegates at our London Property Club event.

Madelin, who heads the Canada Water development at British Land, said that he could not remember a more difficult time for development since he started out in the industry: “Planning in London has never been more difficult than now, and it is going to get more difficult over the next period. A lot of things will get a lot more difficult in the UK: we are in for a grim time and delivery will slow, particularly in London.
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He said that it is ‘difficult’ to suggest risky projects to the British Land board because of the planning problems involved in its ‘big complicated schemes’.

“Trust across London has reduced dramatically,” he said, partly blaming the rise of left wing activism for an increasingly ‘toxic’ environment surrounding the property industry.

And Madelin, who oversaw the regeneration of King’s Cross before leaving Argent earlier this decade, said that while development had always attracted objectors their potential to spread misinformation had been inflated by social media: “You can have one tweet that spreads disinformation and that goes around.”

The risk for the capital is that developers will seek out more business-friendly planning authorities in other major UK cities like Birmingham and Manchester.

And planning impositions on developers are getting worse, he said, criticising the quality of viability assessments being prepared by what he described as ‘hired hands’ consultants.

Instead of paying subsidies of up to £400,000 to deliver social rented three and four bed properties in central London, it would make more sense to build a new generation of new towns on compulsorily purchased land, Madelin said: “I am delighted they are talking about Ox-Cams because it could go a long way to reduce the housing crisis.”

And he described the coalition Government’s decision to slash grants for affordable housing as ‘the most stupid thing’ ex-prime minister David Cameron could have done.

Elaine Bailey, Chief Executive of housing association Hyde Group, echoed Madelin’s concerns about the anti-development mood gripping London’s politics.

She said: “In an average year, we invest half a billion in new development. Despite that there are local authorities that accuse us of loss of social purpose and making vast sums of money.”

Bailey said that Hyde is ‘definitely’ going to make a surplus this year, but it will be reinvested back into the housing: “It’s probably not easiest time to be building new homes but we’ve done our Brexit planning,” she said, adding that the group has borrowing headroom in its business plan.

And Bailey said Hyde is due to start on site this summer on the first phase of its joint venture development with Brighton and Hove council to develop 1,000 shared ownership and rented homes, which are due to be rolled out over the next four years. The JV currently has 450 homes in planning.

Peter Elliot, Head of Development at Transport for London (TfL), told delegates that the agency is focusing its development efforts on parts of the capital where the local councils are co-operative.

He said that TfL is keen to work with local authorities that gives ‘a tail wind’ rather than a ‘head wind’.

The London boroughs of Hillingdon, Bromley and Richmond were examples of local authorities that the agency has a poor relationship with:

“We would rather put our resources into an authority that is willing to give us a tail wind,” Elliot said, naming Barnet, Harrow and Hounslow. “The GLA will give us a lot of firepower but they won’t go out on a limb if the local authority isn’t with us. We have to make sure that the local authority is hand in glove with us.”

Elliot described the development potential of TfL’s bus stations as ‘exponential’, giving as an example Morden where it is planning 2,500 homes by combining together its own and local authority Merton’s landholdings: “Morden is a location that has a hell of a lot of housing but has no real flatted accommodation. This is an opportunity to build a completely new market.”

He also told delegates that TfL is due next month to name the winning bidder for its build to rent JV, which is designed to deliver 3,000 homes across eight projects.

And TfL has an opportunity to provide older people’s living in their sites, which by the nature of its activities tend to be located in highly public transport accessible locations, Elliot said: “We used to shunt them out to the countryside and seaside but they don’t want that any more. They want to be at the heart of the action and they want connections.”
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