Places for London, Transport for London’s (TfL) new property arm, boasts a £1.75bn portfolio accommodating 1,500 businesses, of which 95% are SMEs. Land ownings range from underused space in station buildings to over 850 railway arches, up to major brownfield land development projects, spread across TfL’s 5,500-acre estate.
It is also a landlord to markets, theatres, cafes and night clubs. Amongst this is a historic legacy of assets, including the remnants of a rifle range in the basement of Baker Street tube station.
Graeme Craig’s name will be familiar to many LPA members given his previous role as Commercial Development Director at TfL. Since joining TfL in 2004 he has also worked on the rollout of high-profile Mayoral initiatives, including the congestion charging scheme, low emission zone and cycle hire scheme.
He was appointed CEO of Places for London when TfL’s property assets were spun out into the new organisation in September 2023. Its creation was necessitated by TfL’s inability to fully invest in and develop its assets. One year into the job and Craig is on a mission with ambitions to deliver 20,000 new homes over the next decade, 50% of which targeted as affordable, as well as 3m sq ft of workspace.
“We will be playing a part in helping deliver the residential, commercial and industrial space that London needs if it is to keep growing,” says Graeme, adding: “The fact is we should be consciously trying to deliver the best homes and places we can because it is the right thing to do.”
As a publicly owned commercial operation, there is also a political impetus to play a social, economic and environmental role in the city. Craig’s ultimate boss is the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
Places for London is wholly owned by TfL, and there’s an umbilical cord tying it back to TfL – even adopting a similar format for the name. “We are managing to straddle that we are part of TfL, but also distinct from it,” says Craig, adding: “We emphasise the fact that we’re developing, curating and managing places – not just in London but for London.”
In its 24-year history, TfL has long been more than just an operator of tubes and buses – through the running (and expanding) of the public transport network, it has shaped and regenerated the city. New capacity has unlocked development, and with TfL’s own landholdings it has created new public realm, locations for businesses and homes for Londoners.
Its pipeline includes Limmo Peninsula near Canning Town; 3,350 new homes in Edgware town centre; the £10bn redevelopment of Earls Court, as well as smaller projects such as redevelopment spaces above tube stations, including in the heart of the city in places like Covent Garden.
With many of these schemes, partnership with the private sector is key. With Delancey as part of the Earls Court Development Company. At Edgware with Ballymore. In west London, a partnership with Barratt London aims to build over 4,000 homes. A Build to Rent partnership with Grainger will see a further 1,500 homes built at sites across the capital.
By working in partnership Craig says he has found it easier to bring forward development, as opposed to selling sites off, whilst harnessing the skills and investment the private sector provides. He added: “We can’t pay what the private sector does, so if we’re to attract talent and investment we have to partner with the best.”
With Places for London taking no funding from TfL – rather, the profit is funnelled back into TfL – these partnerships take on added importance.
And there’s another benefit to this model. “Working in and around live operational transport infrastructure comes with many challenges,” says Craig, “but by TfL having skin in the game, it’s easier to address the operational challenges because the organisation has an interest in solving the problems.”
Places for London is ahead of much of the rest of the public sector when it comes to how best to develop publicly owned land. Others are working alongside Places for London – most notably Network Rail, which has plans for a similar arms-length property company.
With limited public money to invest in infrastructure, public bodies are getting smarter in how they manage their assets. The Places for London model is an important vehicle for using development receipts to help subside the transport network, as well as building new homes.
Craig states: “A key aim is to deliver income from commercial space and then plough all of that into improving the transport network”. By doing so, the new Government “can prioritise what it needs to prioritise” from the limited pool of public money available.
One area that is moving apace is the joint working with other major owners of public land. With Network Rail, Places for London is looking to pool land holdings around London’s stations in order to deliver more comprehensive redevelopment plans than would otherwise be the case. The thinking behind this is, according to Craig, rather simple – “the guiding principle is let’s ignore who owns what – let’s just get on and create the best transport interchange in the best neighbourhood that we can.”
Initial feasibility work is underway at eight stations – the objective is the creation of modern transport hubs that are fully integrated between different modes, creating destinations in their own right, not just a place to pass through as quickly as possible. “We don’t have steam trains anymore,” adds Craig, “and stations don’t need to be dirty unattractive places. You don’t need to walk in any direction away from a station to find attractive places – we can bring those attractive spaces into the station itself.”
It’s not to say that Places for London isn’t encountering headwinds. Some are common across the built environment – inflation leading to rocketing costs for labour and raw materials, and higher interest rates making borrowing more expensive. Some schemes took longer to bring to fruition because of local opposition, notably South Kensington station.
Others, such as plans to build homes on station car parks in North London, became embroiled in higher politics, with the previous Government using powers to block schemes. On this, Craig is hopeful that the new political landscape will encourage change – “the current political alignment presents an opportunity for London to come together and work with central government to solve some of the big challenges the city faces.” Since the interview took place, Craig’s optimism looks justified – the new Government gave permission for homes at Cockfosters that were previously blocked.
With partnership so central to Places for London’s mission, it’s unsurprising that Graeme Craig’s message to the development sector is a call to arms. “We want to work with the best” he says, “so get in touch!”
