Islington Kings Cross: Urban Design Framework

Mixed use ‘regeneration’ of employment land
Mixed use ‘regeneration’ of employment land
Policy-led mixed use regeneration is leading to a loss of needed
inner-city industrial - or more broadly - employment land. Ferm
and Jones (2016) found that planning authorities are promoting
mixed-use redevelopment of employment sites, even where
there are thriving businesses and a shortage of employment
premises. Changes in policy are supporting rather than
responding to dezindustrialisation and in this way are
contributing to loss of jobs and the displacement of (primarily
small) businesses and undermining the delivery of affordable
housing. Industrial employment in London in the period 2010 to
2015 is estimated to have increased by around 4%, which could
represent a reversal of the longer-term trend of decline in
industrial employment. (AECOM 2015)
Locally Significant
Industrial Sites
Strategic Industrial
Locations
Non-Designated
Industrial sites
The Land for Industry and Transport Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG)
(2012) established targets or benchmarks for the release of industrial land over the
period 2011 to 2031. The rate of release between 2010 and 2015 was 101ha per
annum - 2.7 times the eqivalent SPG target rate of release for the same period in
the whole of London. The benchmark for Islington was 2h whereas in reality 24 ha
(12 times more) was released between 2010-2015.
Total in Industrial Land Stock 2001 to 2015
There is evidence that some industrial businesses require space
for small-scale production and prototyping and rely on access to
a skilled workforce, specialist manufacturing activities and
agglomeration benefits found in London. These businesses may
find it harder to be economically viable if forced to relocate
outside London. The displacement of employment land from
central areas also contributes to longer transport times,
congestion and thus also increased carbon emissions (AECOM
2015).
Rydin’s (2013 cited in Ferm and Jones 2016) argues that
planning in the UK has become ‘growth-dependent’ and, as
funding for the direct provision of public services is squeezed,
planners rely on planning gain to secure social and community
benefits, and have little choice but to support property
development. Care is needed at a local level to be clear on what
industry is being protected and to ensure that policies are
sufficiently robust to protect them.
Industrial land in London. Source: AECOM 2015
Change in Industrial Land Stock 2001 to 2005
by Property Market Area
Source: AECOM 2015
Analysis
1999 2010
Urban Task Force report brownfield
first policy
a sequential approach to the release of
land and buildings for housing, so that
previously developed land and buildings
get used first
Strategic areas for regeneration. Source: GLA Planning
and DCLG (2017)
Abandonment of the sequential approach
Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition
Government policy
2016
Extending Permitted Development Rights
Conservative Government - extending
Permitted Development Rights to facilitate
conversions of offices and light industrial
premises to housing
Managed release
London Plan– transition of land use has been
actively planned through targets for the
‘managed release’ of industrial land
10