London
Old Oak and Park Royal
London is facing an unprecedented housing crisis and rapid growth. Major new developments are planned in “Opportunity Areas” created by the Mayor of London to accommodate this growth across the city. One of these sites is for the Old Oak Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC). It was chosen as the planning authority on 1 April 2015. The OPDC covers 650 hectares of land in West London, covering the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing, and Brent. The arrival of HS2 and Crossrail in the heart of this site will create a ‘transport super-hub’ at Old Oak Common. The Greater London Authority (GLA) and the OPDC, both working on behalf of the Mayor, view this as an unprecedented opportunity. They aim to spur regeneration in the area, delivering around 25,000 new homes and space for 65,000 jobs. This is one of the largest UK regeneration projects of the coming decades. It is also the site of one of the largest remaining industrial areas in London, Park Royal.
Drawing a line around an area and calling it an Opportunity Area changes its land use from industrial to residential or commercial. Along with expected vast improvements in accessibility, this drastically alters the profit potential for developers. Within 20 months of creating the Development Corporation, proposals for about 11,000 units have already entered the planning system. This is happening many years before transport accessibility gets better.
Our research project investigates how this ambitious urban development can highlight challenges and innovations in urban governance. How is the future city being governed?
Here are three of the issues which have come up so far in our work:
- Financing/Land Value Capture: Compared to other London projects, such as the development of the Olympic Park, limited central government financial support is likely for Old Oak. This has led to sharper debates about how to fairly capture and share the uplifts in land value that result from planning permission. It seems about £2.5 billion might be needed to bring the site into development. Developers, planners, and residents are all interested in how the financial flows are shared out. This includes the distribution between profit, transport infrastructure, and community needs. Over 70% of the site is publicly owned land, currently used for transport-related purposes. There is a tussle within the government over who is in charge of the land and how to share the benefits of the development.
- Community Participation: A new high-density mixed-use district is being developed on brownfield land near low-density residential suburban neighbourhoods. This has led to several bottom-up initiatives aimed at shaping the development. One initiative is the creation of a network of community and residents groups. These groups share information and help each other better understand the planning process. They also support members in providing individual or collective input into various government and developer consultations. This network is called the Grand Union Alliance. Our project has been closely involved in working with and supporting this network. Other initiatives include the creation of two neighbourhood forums. The ultimate goal is to produce neighbourhood plans that reflect their vision for the area. These plans must also adhere to policy guidelines set at a higher level. Neighbourhood Plans will be used to determine planning applications on certain issues in the area they cover. But, the Neighbourhood Forums also provide an important context for residents and community-based organisations. They allow these groups to develop shared ideas and get responses to planned developments. Residents have engaged strongly in consultations over the Opportunity Area Planning Framework and the Draft OPDC Local Plan. They have also successfully influenced the OPDC’s Statement of Community Involvement. Efforts to influence specific planning applications have been less successful. Our project is now looking at the difference between these two types of participation. We are also thinking critically about how this can inform analyses of London politics, such as the idea that it is “post-political.”
- Ideas from Elsewhere: We were initially very impressed with the ambitious visions for the future of Old Oak. The proposal aimed to create a part of the city that would reinforce ideas about London’s global reach. It also sought to help London position itself better against its “global city” competitors, which are now more and more seen in Asia. We are thinking about how ideas from other places spread through the extensive network of experts shaping the project. We are also looking at how these ideas reach residents. Some places seem to be at the top of people’s imaginations. But, these are often quite local, like Kings Cross or Canary Wharf, or closer to home, in Europe. And for many experts, too, the local context of London is a very important sphere of operation. We are thinking about how to understand this very local format of a highly globalised urban process.
Community and Practitioner Engagement
As part of our ESRC-funded research project, ‘Governing the Future City,’ we explored governance innovations in large-scale urban developments in Shanghai, London, and Johannesburg. In April 2017, we held two public panels. The focus was on how “urban qualities” might be produced within the institutional and financial frameworks of modern urban development.
The first video is a recording of the presentation and discussion of the recently published book “Urbane Qualitäten.” Based on joint research in Zurich, the book highlights a selection of urban qualities in modern urban regions. These qualities include centrality, diversity, interaction, accessibility, adaptability, and adaptation.
The second video shows Lee Polisano of PLP Architecture. He is the lead on the master planning for London and Regional/Car Giant in the Old Oak area. In the talk, Lee discusses “Pioneering Urbanity in an Expanding Capital.”
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Department of Geography
University College London
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