We help build better cities through knowledge, networks and leadership
Drawing on research carried out for Public Practice during a year-long placement in LB Havering, Rachel Hearn reflects on the role pre-apps can play in securing good design, the challenges local authorities and applicants face when it comes to pre-apps, and how these services could be improved for all.
Spotlight by Leaders Plus alumna Rebecca Lee of PTE, whose growing obsession with better, more collaborative digital mapping led her and FoL’s Lisa Taylor to organise the 9th Dec #MapLondon conference.
Our latest Spotlight is a guest post from Poplar HARCA’s Nicola Rushton. Inspired by the suffragette centenary, Nicola started Women East in Stroudley Walk, Bow, where Sylvia Pankhurst gave her first speech on the back of a cart. November 2018 marked the centenary of female suffrage, 100 years since the … Read more
Disability affects more than 13m UK citizens – up to 98% check location info before visiting a new place, and 76% have avoided a place specifically because they can’t find accessibility information. South Bank BID and AccessAble are changing that in a key London area and are spreading the word.
A combination of small practices with small, complex sites should be an obvious marriage of opportunity and resource for local authorities, but significant challenges remain. To help, Future of London convened a roundtable with senior representatives from boroughs and SME architectural practices to explore the potential benefits and barriers to working together.
Picking up on two of the big issues discussed at 24 April’s event, Drilling into land and planning for community led housing, this Spotlight clarifies the policy framework supporting “Less than best consideration”, and suggests a method of valuation which seems uniquely appropriate for community-led development. As the Co-operative Councils … Read more
Providing community services, space and connections is getting tougher. Historically the domain of churches and temples and technically a council responsibility, this key element of local support relies on vulnerable funding – and lots of good will. Local trusts have been delivering that support for decades, and it may be time for them to play a bigger role.
These are complicated times for communication: citizens are often angry and/or confused, byzantine data requirements are tying up organisations of all kinds, and “real time” has a sort of elasticity where sector processes can take ages but sector gossip travels faster than light. We’ve been hearing lots of people in … Read more
Our latest Spotlight is a guest post from authors Molly Strauss, Principal Policy and Programme Officer – Growth and Infrastructure; Peter Kemp, Planning Change Manager; and Theo Blackwell, Chief Digital Officer at the Great London Authority. As part of the Mayor’s Smart London work, efforts are underway to improve the … Read more
In our latest Spotlight, guest author Shain Shapiro, CEO of Sound Diplomacy, writes that London’s music and night time economy policies are moving in the right direction.