ADD2489 LA grant funding of the London’s Futures Review

1.1. London Futures Review, led by the Centre for London (CfL), is the first major strategic review of the capital in almost thirty years. The precedent for the review is the London World City Report commissioned by the London Planning Advisory Committee with the City of Westminster and the Corporation of the City, published in 1991.

1.2. London is a successful global city, frequently topping global city indices from liveability and soft power to universities and creativity. It is a recognised world leader in investment and regeneration. It also has an international reputation for tolerance, having been able to maintain cohesion and shared identities in the face of high levels of migration and increasing diversity.

1.3. However, this success has brought some challenges in the form of congestion, high house prices and insufficient supply, increased in-work poverty, and a deepening of wage inequality. The economic disparity between London and the rest of the UK has also grown. There are also substantial contextual challenges, from climate change to the changing global economy and international order, and from the potential impacts of Brexit to continued population growth. Furthermore, Coronavirus is, and will continue to have profound knock-on effects on almost every aspect of Londoners’ lives, laying bare hidden problems and inequalities and revealing the interdependence of much of the support infrastructure.

1.4. The Centre for London’s ambition for the review, which will be delivered in three phases, is to develop a new vision and strategy for London’s future, based on the city’s enduring values and changing challenges, and on extensive public and expert engagement.

1.5. Phase 1 of the programme was a strategic assessment of London’s position and challenge. It delivered an issues paper, London at a Crossroads, setting out the challenges facing London over the next 30 years, potential scenarios and case studies of how other cities are responding, a governance proposal and engagement strategy for Phase 2 to engage a diverse coalition of fundraisers and supporters to take the programme forward.

1.6. This project is of strategic importance to London and London government as it will facilitate horizon-scanning that will enable the Mayor and the GLA to develop a robust long-term plan for the capital’s growth and prosperity, and to address identified challenges. It will also help inform action to get the city through the current crisis, and as it meets the challenges of recovery. The GLA’s involvement is expected to take the form of: providing to CfL access to expertise within the City Intelligence Unit, including the potential to commission discrete pieces of research, and to Talk London, the GLA’s online community, to test opinions about options, scenarios and directions of travel.

1.7. The benefits of the GLA’s contribution are that it is designated a founding project partner. The Assistant Director, Strategy, Intelligence & Analysis is the GLA nominee who sits on the advisory council to help shape the scope, narrative and development of the next phase of the project so that it generates the most relevant insight for a future vision for London and its long-term development.

1.8. The GLA contributed £20,000 from its CIU Assistant Director budget in 2019/2020 towards Phase 1 of the London 2050 project, as per ADD2396.

2.1. Phase 2 is the core of the project, where CfL will engage a wide variety of Londoners with the challenges outlined in Phase 1, and co-create a vision of the city that Londoners want. The objectives of Phase 2 of the project are to deliver by September 2021:

• publication of a paper, ‘The London We Want: a Plan for a Better London’;

• a main media launch;

• engagement in the form of partners member/network activation, stakeholder/partner events and interactive digital engagement; and

• an engagement strategy for Phase 3 and a diverse coalition of fundraisers and supporters to take the programme forward.

3.1. The review will be looking at current trends in terms of equalities and cohesion, and at impacts of different future scenarios through various different lenses, one of which will be equity. This review will also look at the implications for the GLA’s Pubic Sector Equality Duty of the different scenarios and identify policies and actions that would need to be put in place to meet, and go beyond, our Equality duty. The Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy addresses both internal and external policies and actions to ensure that EDI is embedded in the Authority’s culture and internal arrangements, and in our external programmes, relationships and engagement with London’s stakeholders, organisations and Londoners themselves.

a) Key risks and issues

b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1. The Mayor’s ‘intend to publish’ London Plan will shape how London evolves and develops over coming years and will serve as a blueprint for the future development of sustainable, inclusive growth of the capital. The ‘intend to publish’ Plan runs from 2019 to 2041, and is intended to provide a long-term view of London’s development to inform decision-making. The Mayor is required to keep the Plan under review. This strategic review, which is intended to look forward to 2050, will generate new thinking around high-level responses to the big challenges that London faces, especially in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, that will inform any reviews of the London Plan. The project also aims to mobilise an alliance of stakeholders and Londoners across the public and private sectors and civil society to take positive and proactive action to help deliver a new set of long-term priorities together. The project will also complement work that is being taken forward on the role of anchor institutions in London’s recovery programme, and inform current policy thinking about the future vision and regional policy framework for London in the Mayor’s Office and Strategy team.

c) Consultations and impact assessments

4.2. A range of London stakeholders, including from the business, policy and research communities, alongside representatives from the voluntary and community sector, and Londoners were engaged in the London conference held in November 2020 which disseminated findings from Phase 1, and sought their feedback on the findings to provide input and insight into phase 2 of the review. Phase 2 build on this engagement.

4.3. There are no conflicts of interest arising from this decision.

5.1. Approval is sought for the GLA to contribute £20,000 towards Phase 2 of the London Futures project that is to be undertaken by the Centre for London (CfL).

5.2. The expenditure will be funded from the 2020-21 Strategy Team’s budget held within the City Intelligence Unit.

5.3. The Centre for London (CfL) estimates that the total budget for all three phases of the review is likely to be in the range of £475,000. The GLA will give consideration, in due course, to contributing to Phase 3 of the project, subject to budget availability and further approval via the Authority’s approval process.