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Policy 2.11 Central Activities Zone - strategic functions
Policy
Strategic
A The Mayor will, and boroughs and other relevant agencies should:
a ensure that development proposals to increase office floorspace within CAZ and the north of the Isle of Dogs Opportunity Area include a mix of uses including housing, unless such a mix would demonstrably conflict with other policies in this plan (see Policies 3.4 and 4.3)
b seek solutions to constraints on office provision and other commercial development imposed by heritage designations without compromising local environmental quality, including through high quality design to complement these designations
c identify, enhance and expand retail capacity to meet strategic and local need and focus this on the CAZ frontages shown on Map 2.3 and in Annex 2
d work together to prepare a planning framework for the West End Special Retail Policy Area
e recognise, improve and manage the country’s largest concentration of night time activities in Soho/Covent Garden as well as other strategic clusters in and around CAZ in line with Policy 4.6
f extend the offer and enhance the environment of strategic cultural areas along the South Bank, around the Kensington Museum complex and at the Barbican
g ensure development complements and supports the clusters of other strategically important, specialised CAZ uses including legal, health, academic, state and ‘special’ uses while also recognising the ‘mixed’ nature of much of the CAZ
h secure completion of essential new transport schemes necessary to support the roles of CAZ, including Crossrail; maintain and enhance its transport and other essential infrastructure and services; realise resultant uplifts in development capacity to extend and improve the attractions of the Zone; and enable CAZ uses to contribute to provision of these transport investments
i seek capacity in or on the fringe of the CAZ suitable for strategic international convention functions.
LDF preparation
B Boroughs with all or part of their area falling within the CAZ (see Map 2.3) should develop more detailed policies and proposals taking into account the priorities and functions for the CAZ set out above and in Policy 2.10 and 2.12.
Supporting text
2.44 The Central Activities Zone covers London’s geographic, economic and administrative core. It brings together the largest concentration of London’s financial and globally-oriented business services. Almost a third of all London jobs are based there and, together with Canary Wharf, it has historically experienced the highest rate of growth in London. As the seat of national Government it includes Parliament, the headquarters of central Government and the range of organisations and associations linked with the legislative and administrative process. It is also a cultural centre, providing the base for theatres, concert halls and other facilities of national and international significance, as well as the base for a range of cultural industries of often global reach. It contains a range of retail centres, from the internationally important West End and Knightsbridge to more local centres primarily meeting the needs of residents. It is also home for 284,000[1] Londoners, providing a variety of housing to meet local and city-wide needs. Finally, it embraces much of what is recognised across the world as iconic London – the sweep of the inner Royal Parks and the Thames combined with a mixture of unrivalled and sometimes ancient heritage and more modern architecture. All of this gives the CAZ a unique character and feel across its hugely varied quarters and neighbourhoods, which the Mayor is committed to protecting and enhancing.
2.45 In practical terms, the Mayor intends to deliver this commitment by continuing to support the unique functions the CAZ fulfils for London, the UK and internationally, and the development needed to sustain them. Development in the CAZ should ensure strategic and more local needs are met, while not compromising the quality of the CAZ’s residential neighbourhoods or its distinctive heritage and environments. In particular, policies favouring mixed use development should be applied flexibly on a local basis so as not to compromise the CAZ’s strategic functions, while sustaining the predominantly residential neighbourhoods in the area. This approach could be complemented by the use of housing ‘swaps’ or ‘credits’ between sites within, or beyond the CAZ (see Chapter 3 and Policy 4.3).
2.46 Over the period of the Plan, employment in the CAZ and Isle of Dogs is expected to grow substantially, particularly driven by expansion of the office-based business services sector, as well as more jobs in areas like retail and leisure services. It will be important to ensure an adequate supply of office accommodation and other workspaces in the CAZ/Isle of Dogs suitable to meet the needs of a growing and changing economy. The projected increase in office-based employment in the CAZ/Isle of Dogs could create significant demand for new office space. Similarly, there will be a need to ensure continued availability of workspaces appropriate for the technology, media and telecommunications and other emerging sectors (see Policy 4.10) in and on the fringe of the CAZ.
2.47 It will also be important to support the continued success of the two international retail centres at Knightsbridge and the West End, ensuring the planning system is used to protect and enhance their unique offer and to improve the quality of their environment and public realm – something particularly important in the Oxford, Regent and Bond streets/Tottenham Court Road area covered by the West End Special Retail Policy Area (WESPRA) within which planning policy should continue to support the area’s future as a retail and leisure district of national, city-wide and local importance, focussing particularly on improving the public realm and optimising the benefits from Crossrail stations at Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road. It will also be important to support a range of other retail centres focused on CAZ frontages to meet the needs of the CAZ’s residents, workers and visitors.
2.48 The CAZ has a number of other specialised economic clusters, including the financial services in the City of London, the legal cluster around the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice, the university precinct in Bloomsbury/ The Strand, the property and hedge fund clusters in Mayfair, medical services in and around Harley Street and ‘Theatreland’ in the West End. These clusters will be supported.
2.49 The CAZ also includes many of the sights, attractions, heritage assets and facilities at the centre of London’s visitor offer, complemented by the presence of specialist retail and leisure uses there. The visitor economy is important to London as a whole, and there will be a need to ensure that the CAZ retains its status as a world-class visitor destination, while also meeting the needs of those who live and work there. The CAZ night time economy presents particular challenges, meeting the needs of Londoners on a substantial scale, as well as those of visitors. Policy 4.6 identifies strategic clusters of night time activities, highlighting the strategic importance of that around Soho/Leicester Square/ Covent Garden and providing guidance on the balance to be struck in managing tensions between these and other uses. This is something that should be borne in mind particularly when considering new developments which may present opportunities to improve the quality of the public realm.
2.50 Business travel is a key element of the visitor economy in the CAZ, and London’s competitiveness could be significantly enhanced by a convention centre of international standard. The case for such a centre is compelling, and the Mayor will support efforts to enhance existing or develop new provision in appropriate locations.
2.51 This area is also home to many of the capital’s (and the country’s) leading cultural facilities, with cultural quarters of strategic importance along the South Bank and around the West Kensington and Bloomsbury museum quarters. These will be protected, and opportunities to enhance or extend them, to improve the quality of their environments or to develop new quarters in appropriate locations will be considered sympathetically.
2.52 The CAZ cannot be seen in isolation. Its success is critical to the overall prosperity of London and the UK; this success in turn depends on availability of a skilled workforce, goods and services from other parts of the capital and beyond. The economic, social, environmental and transport linkages between the CAZ and the rest of London, the greater south east, the wider UK and the world have to be recognised and addressed.
2.53 In particular, the period covered by this Plan will see the construction and opening of Crossrail. This will provide significant additional public transport capacity in central London, with five stations in the CAZ. Crossrail will give rise to strategic development opportunities across the CAZ, particularly at the Tottenham Court Road Opportunity Area and the Farringdon/Smithfield Intensification Area.
2.54 The Mayor will work with boroughs and other stakeholders to develop further detailed guidance to help inform the planning of the CAZ – supplementary guidance dealing with the area as a whole, and more detailed development frameworks for the opportunity areas within it (see Policy 2.13).
2.55 Although the northern part of the Isle of Dogs is not formally within the CAZ, it fulfils some of the same functions, particularly in supporting a globally-oriented financial and business service cluster. As a result, the same general planning policy direction for offices should be taken there as in the CAZ.
[1] Source: GLA Intelligence based on 2011 Census
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