MD2003 Review of the London Plan: temporary additional staff

1.1 The London Plan is the Mayor’s over-arching statutory strategy. It provides the geographical framework which integrates all his other strategies; sets out his strategic planning policies with which all borough Local Plans must be in general conformity and is part of the development plan for all areas of London. It provides the statutory strategic context for his growth agenda, showing the scale, nature and distribution of growth, and the infrastructure investment necessary to support it.

1.2 The Mayor has indicated that he wishes to replace the current London Plan as quickly as possible and a work programme has been developed to enable publication in 2019. In view of the external factors which bear on plan preparation this is the earliest date practicable (see ‘Milestones’ below).

1.3 The two previous full London Plans each took three years to prepare, albeit with larger teams performing fewer functions than currently. The London Plan team presently has 16 staff (including the London Development Database (LDD) team) and is also responsible for Local Plan ‘general conformity’ and a range of corporate policy functions. For the 2011 Plan it had 21 staff and a narrower range of responsibilities. It is understood that the 2004 Plan was produced by a team of around 24, again with a narrower range of functions.

1.4 The Mayor is asked to approve expenditure of up to £278,000 for a Principal Planner for 12 months beginning mid 2016/17 and two Senior Planners for 24 months beginning mid 2016/17 to support a review of the London Plan.

1.5 The cost will be up to £86,000 in 2016-17 which is proposed to be funded from Development, Enterprise and Environment’s (DE&E) 2016-17 Minor Programme budget. The funding for 2017-18 (£139,000) and 2018-19 (£53,000) is to be funded from Planning unit’s budget or Planning’s Smoothing reserves.

1.6 Separate approval will also be sought by the Head of Paid Service to create these posts starting from October 2016.

2.1 The work programme for the delivery of the London Plan review is designed to:
• respond to political objectives/timelines;
• take due account of legal, procedural, technical, co-ordination and other practical considerations to produce a ‘sound’ Plan; and
• optimise use of existing and (requested) new resources.

2.2 In broad terms, the work programme for the review can be divided into two parts. The first entails the preparation of technical inputs; consultation on the new draft Plan and, in the case of the Grade 8s requested below, preparation and presentation at the Examination in Public (EIP). Other than the run-up to the EIP and its subsequent stages it is largely controlled by the GLA. The timeline for the second part of the programme is largely determined by external bodies (Planning Inspectorate / Government) and depending on these could run to May 2019 at the earliest or, as seems more likely, mid-autumn 2019 (see milestones below).

2.3 This bid for additional resources is designed to expedite the first stage of the process over which the GLA has greatest control, leaving the second stage to be managed by the Team’s existing establishment.

3.1 The revised London Plan will be prepared in the context of the public sector equality duty and directly and indirectly (through the Integrated Impact Assessment – IIA see below) will include identification and evaluation of the likely potential impacts, both positive and negative, of actions on people with protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation). The IIA will assess how these issued are addressed.

Key risks and issues

4.1 The proposed appointments are intended to address particular ‘pinch points’ in preparation of the London Plan, focusing on its earlier stages. The Principal post will be for one year to initiate and progress the work programme. The two Senior Planner posts will provide the necessary technical consultation and EIP inputs, after which the existing team members will see the London Plan through to final publication.

4.2 The proposed appointments are intended to reduce the considerable risks around the early stages of Plan preparation and to get the draft to a point where the expertise of the existing team can see it through to completion according to the proposed tight timeline. This will also enable the team to continue to perform its on-going statutory functions in addressing Local Plan ‘general conformity’ and the Mayor’s duties to cooperate, inform and consult with relevant bodies beyond London.

4.3 Assumptions:
• that the above statutory functions will remain the responsibility of the London Plan team during preparation of the Plan.
• that no significant new SPGs or other planning documents other than those associated with Plan preparation will be prepared.
• that DEE strategy coordination will enable preparation of the London Plan to a different timeline to other strategies (because of its different statutory processes)
• that the Mayor will accept that a new Plan will take 3 years to prepare.

4.4 Other events/risks

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.5 Links to other Mayoral strategies: the London Plan provides the statutory overarching spatial framework to coordinate all the Mayor’s other strategies and, more generally, all strategies including the London Plan have to be consistent with each other. On the face of it this could raise tensions because of the different timetables for preparation of the Plan and the other strategies and, to a lesser extent, for translating policy content from the other strategies into the Plan. In practice, responsive coordination of all the strategies/Plan will address this apparent tension.

Impact assessments and consultations

4.6 Impact assessments: an Integrated Impact Assessment is an essential requirement in London Plan preparation and scoping for that for the next review is already under consideration in the context of assessments required for review of all the Mayor’s strategies.

4.7 Consultation: similarly, there is a statutory requirement for consultation on the draft London Plan and the results of this are a major input to the subsequent Examination in Public. There is also a statutory duty to inform and consult authorities beyond London on proposals to revise the London Plan. In addition various forms of informal consultation are undertaken eg recently through the Outer London Commission, the Strategic Spatial Planning Officers group from the wider SE and collective stakeholders such as London First, Just Space and academia.

5.1 Mayoral approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £278,000 for a Principal Planner for 12 months beginning mid 2016/17 and two Senior Planners for 24 months beginning mid 2016/17 to support a review of the London Plan. The detail of the costs is provided below.

5.2 The cost of £86,000 in 2016-17 is proposed to be funded from the DE&E minor programme budget. The funding for 2017-18 (£139,000) and 2018-19 (£53,000) is to be funded from Planning unit’s budget or Planning’s Smoothing reserves.

5.3 Separate approval will also need to be sought by the Head of Paid Service (HOPS) to create these posts staring from October 2016.

6.1 Under S339 of the GLA Act 1999 (as amended) (“the Act”), the Mayor is required to keep under review matters which may be expected to affect the development of London or the planning of its development or which are otherwise relevant to the content of the London Plan.

6.2 S340 of the Act sets out the Mayor’s duty to review the London Plan from time to time. S341 of the Act empowers the Mayor to replace the existing London Plan with a new version.

6.3 Given the timetable for replacing a London Plan (in the past a minimum of three years, and with a larger team establishment than at present) the Mayor has indicated that he wishes to replace the London Plan as quickly as possible because if delayed it may not be possible to replace the Plan during his first term.

6.4 In order to complete the task of reviewing and replacing the London Plan by the earliest possible date, additional resources are required to help drive initial research and drafting - a Principal Planner for one year and two Senior Planners for two years.

6.5 Due to the proposed level of expenditure, a Mayoral Decision is required and a HOPS form will then need to be completed in order to create the necessary posts on the GLA’s establishment.

6.6 It is noted that all three posts are intended to be fixed-term. Once the post holder has been in post beyond two years, he/she will have the same statutory rights regarding unfair dismissal as a permanent member of staff. He or she may also be entitled to a redundancy payment should the post come to an end.

6.7 Any fair dismissal of the post holders at the end of the fixed term will necessitate a fair reason and a fair procedure. This will involve considering suitable alternative employment before confirming that employment is terminated. If the funding continues after the end of their fixed term contracts, it may be difficult to dismiss for redundancy (one of the fair reasons) if in fact there is further work to be carried out after the end of the contract.

Contextual work programme: key milestones

Appendices and supporting papers:

• The current version of the London Plan was an ‘interim’ response to the major upturn in population growth revealed by the 2011 Census and already includes a commitment to an early review. Such a review will provide greater certainty to guide London’s long term development and growth which in turn will underpin achievement of the Mayor’s objectives.
• By virtue of being up-to-date it will provide the most authoritative basis for his planning and other strategic duties as soon as possible.
• While the timescale for revising the Mayor’s other strategies is shorter than that for the London Plan, ensuring that it is prepared as quickly as possible will contribute to their robustness and address statutory requirements for all strategies to be consistent.
• It will also provide a timely opportunity to address what are likely to be significant changes to aspects of government policy arising from the Productivity Plan, H&P Bill, devolution proposals, NPPF changes and CSR and to meet Mayoral commitments to engage more fully with authorities beyond London.

• As London’s Spatial Development Strategy, the London Plan has a long term, 20-25 year horizon to guide the city’s development. However, it is also very much a day-to-day operational plan which bears on more immediate planning proposals and to be authoritative in this role must be as up-to-date as possible.
• To this end the requested resources will be used to speed up and underpin plan preparation to maximum effect over a focused period. The subsequent stages of preparation can then be carried out by the current establishment for the London Plan team.

Also see Attached Business Case