The Mayor's Workplace Pledge

In the draft new London Plan the Mayor encourages boroughs to introduce Article 4 Directions backed by local evidence to remove permitted development rights for office / light industrial to residential. To date (2018), at least 24 London boroughs have implemented Article 4 Directions to remove the permitted development rights in selected parts of their areas. To ensure that London’s nationally significant office locations are safeguarded, the Mayor has also published strategic evidence to support office to residential Article 4 Directions for areas in and around central London including the Central Activities Zone, the Isle of Dogs (North), Tech City and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

In June 2017 the Mayor launched the Good Growth Fund, a new £70million regeneration programme to support growth and community development in London. The first round of funding saw £24million granted to a variety of organisations. Some of the workspace projects include:

• Mission Kitchen at the Food Exchange - an innovative food hub in New Covent Garden Market, Vauxhall. The project will create London's biggest kitchen, with some of the UK's best fresh produce suppliers on its doorstep. Across 1,500sqm of shared kitchens, kitchen studios and co-working desk space, it will house more than 100 members working in every field of food, as well as offering professional training, business incubation and a programme of food culture events
• Connecting Wood Green – repurposing more than 5,000sqm of light industrial workspace and other unused council assets as affordable workspace, including temporary re-housing for local arts organisation Collage Arts during the redevelopment of the Chocolate Factory site
• Somerset House - transforming more than 600sqm of disused heritage space into a creative-led workspace for around 400 people and fledgling creative enterprises, including an associated platform for public performance and dialogue

These investments make a tangible difference to workspace provision London. Early findings from the GLA’s Culture and Creative Industries Unit suggest that Mayoral investments have played an important role in supporting new artists’ workspace, with new investments from the Good Growth Fund and Creative Enterprise Zones helping to boost a healthy pipeline of new spaces across the capital.

As well as direct investment in workspaces that demonstrate outstanding social impact, the Mayor has used the draft New London Plan to establish a supportive policy environment. New policies around affordable workspace mean planning obligations can be used to secure affordable workspace at rents maintained below the market rate for that space, for a specific social, cultural or economic development purpose.

The Mayor’s draft New London Plan also recognises the need to protect and provide low-cost business space (available at open market rents) including flexible workspace, to meet the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Mayor announced a shortlist of 11 boroughs in early 2018 that will each receive a grant of £50,000 to develop their plans to become Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZs). (Hackney and Tower Hamlets submitted a joint bid for a CEZ located across a borough boundary).

CEZs will ensure artists, creative talent and communities can thrive. CEZs will secure permanent, affordable, creative workspace, and live-work spaces at well below market rents, and ensure no net loss of affordable workspace through new developments in the area. The best bids will become one of three CEZs, to be announced later this year.

Whether directly investing in workspace provision, or creating additional space through planning obligations, the Mayor is encouraging all partners to work with providers that can demonstrate exceptional social, economic and/or cultural impact.

City Hall is currently considering proposals to create an accreditation system for workspace providers. Accredited providers would be able to demonstrate the positive impact they have on the wider community, as well as their tenants.

Through the Growth Hub, the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) and the Mayor are also funding free master classes and one-to-one sessions for London-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are looking for a commercial lease. The programme provides tailored support to SMEs wanting to negotiate their leases or negotiate existing leases.

While planning policy has done much to encourage mixed-use development in London, City Hall recognises that these developments have often failed to provide ground floor units suitable for workspace. As a result, we are progressing a number of guidance documents and studies to inform the development of suitable ground floors for non-residential space.

• the Industrial Intensification Primer (2017) summaries the main forms of industrial intensification and co-location with residential in case studies. This is the first step in further work on detailed specifications, as well as viability and deliverability which will be published summer 2018
• as part of the Cultural Infrastructure Plan a Cultural Facilities Design Toolkit will be produced. The toolkit will include spatial provision requirements and specifications providing early guidance for the development of creative and cultural facilities. This will include production workspaces including creative studios and industrial spaces

The Mayor has supported the proposal for Creative Land Trust, a vehicle to purchase property and lease to affordable creative workspace providers, to secure creative production in the city in perpetuity.