This post-election event and expert panel offered a chance to discuss the main recommendations that have emerged from the project thus far about accelerating housing development in London. The briefing paper for the event can be downloaded here.

Attendees included policymakers, architects, housing developers, academics, students, non-profit sector representatives and local authority officers. The lively, engaging discussion covered a range of topics, including the need for more proactive, pragmatic leadership around housing delivery, the opportunities that could come with greater devolution, what role the GLA should play, how to achieve greater certainty in the planning process, and what financial innovations might jumpstart development in London authorities.

The event began with a presentation of the findings and recommendations that have emerged from our various events. The slides from this presentation can be downloaded here and an audio recording of the opening presentation is available here. We apologise for the poor quality of the recording–we were unaware of technical difficulties with the recording equipment until after the event. 

Attendees then attended smaller break-out sessions where they discussed these findings and debated what they believed were the key ideas or instruments which could result in a step-change in terms of housing delivery.

Some of these key ideas were presented at the beginning of the final session, and attendees had a chance to ‘weigh in’ using interactive technology to rank how much impact they expect each proposal could have (no impact; little impact; some impact; sizeable impact; total game changer):

This set the stage for our expert panel, during which Roger Madelin (Argent), David Lunts (GLA), and Kate Allen (Financial Times) discussed what they believe is needed to truly accelerate development. Tony Travers, Director of LSE London, chaired the discussion.

A recording of the opening presentations given by the panellists is available here. Once again, we apologise for the poor quality of the recording.

In all, the afternoon offered a chance to further debate the findings and proposals that have emerged over the last nine months, and the discussion importantly illuminated further areas of opportunity for potential change. Looking ahead, our hope is to build from the lessons learned this year in terms of national government policy as we turn our attention towards the 2016 Mayoral race. We hope you will join us at our next event in September (exact date TBC) at which we will begin looking at the key questions and issues related to housing supply and accelerating development facing London’s municipal government.

Thank you to all those who attended, and to Nicolas Bosetti, Alessandra Mossa, and Simon Hicks for their generous assistance with the event.