Agenda item

Underpayments of s106 Monies

Mary Durcan asked a question of the Chairman of Planning and Transportation regarding underpayments of s106 monies.

The Chairman advised that City Local Plan policy required housing developments with ten or more residential units to provide 30% affordable housing on-site or, exceptionally, 60% equivalent on another site or as a cash in-lieu payment.

Where a developer could not provide the required level of affordable housing, or sought an off-site payment, they were required to justify this through a viability appraisal. This reflected guidance in the National Planning Policy Framework and the London Plan.

The City Corporation had commenced a review of the City’s Local Plan and would be considering what changes were necessary to ensure the delivery of affordable housing going forward. In considering these changes, account would be taken of the Mayor of London’s recently adopted Affordable Housing and Viability Supplementary Planning Guidance, which required developments providing less than 35% affordable housing to be justified by reference to a publicly available viability assessment.

City of London Police Investigation

Prem Goyal asked a question of the Chairman of Policy and Resources regarding a City of London Police investigation. In reply, the Chairman noted that she was not able comment on police matters and encouraged the Honourable Member to raise the issue with the City of London Police directly.

In response to a supplementary question from Prem Goyal regarding a review of the outcomes of the recent City-wide elections, the Chairman clarified that the Policy and Resources Committee had surveyed potential electoral candidates who subsequently chose not to stand in the City elections in a bid to understand their reasons for not doing so, in order to inform the promotion of diversity on the Court of Common Council in the future. The Committee had not reviewed the overall outcome of the City elections.

Overseas Engagement

Prem Goyal asked a question of the Chairman of the Mayoralty Visits Advisory Committee regarding the evaluation of overseas engagement.

Responding, the Chairman outlined the general level of expenditure associated with overseas visits made by the Lord Mayor and the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee and noted that these visits were central elements of the City Corporation’s more strategic, joined-up and complementary programme of overseas engagement. The programme reflected the greater overseas focus of the City Corporation’s enhanced trade and investment strategy and regular reports were made on the outcomes of the visits to Members, through various mechanisms.

The Chairman also reminded Members of the outcomes of the Fraser Review, since which officers in Mansion House and the Economic Development Office (EDO) had been working closely with Her Majesty’s Government and businesses to look at how to continue to drive stronger, shared outcomes and build a more co-ordinated approach. The Mayoral Visits Advisory Committee also continued to monitor the impact of visits and their policy and trade and investment outcomes, alongside Government and the businesses involved, and recent reorganisations in both EDO and Mansion House had brought increased international expertise with which to review the programme of visits, using a variety of metrics including new Foreign Direct Investment projects landing in London and positive business feedback on Mayoral visits.

Pedestrian Safety

Alderman Ian Luder asked a question of the Chairman of Planning and Transportation regarding pedestrian safety in the City.

In reply, the Chairman advised that pedestrian casualties had become the primary focus of the City of London Corporation’s Road Danger Reduction work programme. Activity also continued on engineering, behavioural and educational programmes to further reduce pedestrian injuries. To support this, the City Corporation was modelling current and likely future pedestrian flows within the City which it would be using to identify overcrowding hot-spots. This data would be used to explore opportunities for crowd dissipation, promoting alternative walking routes and reducing pedestrian overcrowding that could result in spillage onto City streets. The Chairman further noted that current data on pedestrian casualties held by the City of London Police was not broken down across factors such as age or disability.

In response to a supplementary question from Deputy Brian Mooney regarding the potential for greater levels of pedestrianisation across the City in the longer term, the Chairman replied that his immediate priority was to focus on safety on the City’s streets. He observed that there were many methods of achieving this, of which pedestrianisation was one, and advised that all options would be considered by the Planning and Transportation Committee in due course.