Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Paul Beckett (Policy & Performance Director)

The Board received a presentation regarding Future City Smarter City and noted the following:

•        Development plan sets the formal context for future change but slow procedures mean can be too general or outdated. The City needed more immediate strategies and initiatives to deliver it.

•        There was a need complementary infrastructure improvements to sustain the intensity of development and activity in the City.

•        There was a need to review research into future trends to ensure the City is aware of them and ready to take advantage of them.

•        Cumulative effect is joined up change that prepares the City for the future  so that it can operate as a more attractive, resilient, efficient, adaptable, responsive and sustainable place – a Smarter City in a smarter world     

•          Five Key City Places identified that are the focus of change:

•        Cheapside/Bank – station upgrade, Bloomberg, etc. 

•        Eastern Cluster – tall buildings and streetscape

•        Aldgate – street changes and new open space project

•        North City due to Crossrail – intensification, cultural quarter 

•        Thames riverside - improved walk, new buildings.

•        City firms thrive on good IT. The local market was very competitive with 12 competing telecoms companies. This was good for users but generated duplication and congestion under the streets and on buildings for aerials. We need to complement with good wifi in the public realm.

•        Changes in technology were changing business assumptions and expectations regarding work location, working practices.

•        City had excellent fibre optic networks for large firms’ offices but was not so good for small firms and for wifi.

•        The blurring of work-life balance and office-remote working balance would increase demand for full IT capacity away from office.  City’s public realm needs to offer it.

•        Data-harvesting and data-sharing offer great scope for better understanding of and intervention in the urban management of the City in the public interest

•        Need to balance benefit against privacy and commercial confidentiality concerns.

•        Social trends affect behaviourand use of the public services, transport and the public realm. The key trends were:

•         population growth and housing pressure

•         travel mode changes – reduced car reliance in urban areas

•         work-life balance blurring – more part-time or unusual hours working

•         Mobile, contingent lifestyle especially among the young

•         greater importance placed on leisure, arts/culture 

In response to a query from Members, Officer said that the Greater London Authority projections were that the housing supply would be constrained. Growth in young depends in part on suitable family housing stock. The City was a relatively secure and attractive environment for elderly so they tend to stay as they age. The trends posed health and wellbeing challenges for the Board.