Debating the West End - do we always have to go for growth?

Yesterday there was an interesting discussion at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning about the report from the West End Commission (see last blogpost). One thing that came up was the way that always pursuring growth in a locality was seen as almost inevitable. The West End is undoubtedly commercially successful. Employment growth and new development has continued throughout this recessionary period. Indeed many of the difficulties that it faces could be argued to come from too much growth. And yet there is such resistance to planning for less growth of this area and diverting some of this activity to other areas across London. Why is growth of the Westfields seens as a threat rather than a spreading of economic activity? But seen as a threat it is. The argument is made that the West End is part of the growth machine that is London and that is at the heart of the UK economy. Thus any shifts that might reduce this growth are resisted. Indeed changes are currently being implemented to local government finance that will create greater incentives for local authorities to pursue economic growth. In London it seems likely that the report from the Travers Commision on London's finance (commissioned by the Mayor of London) will recommend greater tax raising power for the Mayor and the principle that a larger proportion of the tax-take from Londoners and London businesses being retained by the Greater London Authority. This will ramp up the growth machine of London yet further. Perhaps this machine works well in London but as a model for local government more generally it can create problems. How will the income of local authorities in low growth areas fare? Will there be less redistribution given that the totality of local government finance is unlikely to grow? This suggests again the need to think again how to plan in areas where growth - and now it seems enhanced central government funding - is not the norm.

London's West End

Last week, the report by the West End Commission, set up by Westminster City Council was launched. I was lucky enough to be involved in the fascinating process of discussions that led to this report. These revolved around the issue of how to ensure the future success of the West End and whether this future success was tied up with encouraging growth and development, dealing with the externalities of such growth and/or preserving what was already there and arguably made the area so distinctive. There was widespread agreement that the unique street morphology and historic buildings and places, the mix of land uses and social groups, the prevalence of SMES and the fine grain of the area were the things that made the West End what is was. So should preservation be the order of the day? Should existing clusters of land uses - as found in Cork Street and Savile Row - be specially protected?  Or would this inhibit future organic change that would provide the West End of the future? How to balance growth and conservation and yet work towards a low carbon future? The West End is though unusual across the UK. The report makes clear that is continues to experience economic success even during the recent downturns. Here growth-dependent planning can work if regulation is appropriately applied, if development is managed so that it does not kill off the distinctiveness of the West End and if some of the profits of development are used to support low carbon initiatives, place making and, above all, affordable housing provision. But we should not be deluded by this example; most places across the UK are not in this situation. And, if Larry Elliott in today's Guardian is correct, then the future may mean that the West End will be more and more atypical; see his article on 'What if, this time, the party is really over?' at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/larryelliott.

You can find details of the Commission and its report at http://www.westendcommission.com/ and I will be giving a talk on this at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL at 5.30pm on Wed 8th May; see http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning/events/lps-rydin-may2013 for details.