On behalf of its members, London Property Alliance has responded to an open invitation to comment on Camden’s Council’s Local Plan review. The Council was seeking to update its Local Plan to better reflect key issues such as climate change, housing, Camden’s high streets, job creation and economic development.
In the response, the Alliance drew attention to the mixed-use policy in the current Plan, which is unique to Camden across London boroughs. The Alliance commented that improved flexibility is required for developments to be better tailored to the needs of the individual sites and surrounding communities.
“Existing and emerging Local Plan policy seeks to deliver community benefits from developments. Policy should ensure that such benefits are directly linked to the development and should be sufficiently flexible to take into account individual site circumstances. What is appropriate on one site will not necessarily be appropriate on another. This flexibility should also recognise the viability and deliverability of development.”
The response also welcomes Camden Council’s retrofit first policy but noted that policies should ensure that, whilst supporting retrofit first, they recognise that retrofit will not always be possible, or the best outcome, on every site, and allow for redevelopment in appropriate circumstances.
“Applications should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and take into account Whole Life Carbon Assessments, as well as the adaptability of a specific building. This approach should be based on a full assessment and understanding of the benefits of both retrofit and redevelopment. The extent to which individual development proposals can achieve NZC and their whole life carbon effects, should also be weighed alongside the other planning and wider public benefits of the proposal. The assessment should be based upon the ‘three pillars of sustainability’ (Social, Environmental and Economic), and not the environmental pillar in isolation. The policy approach should be flexible to ensure the best use of land so that homes (including affordable homes), jobs, and community benefits can be optimised together with environmental benefits.
Read the full response here
