From music and sport to street life and shared spaces, culture shapes how we live, connect, and belong. Find out how our Future London Leaders would make culture more inclusive and embedded in everyday places.
Culture is the DNA of London — shaping identity, fostering inclusion, and driving economic growth. The city’s creative industries generate £50bn a year and support one in six jobs. But recent crises have deepened inequalities, hitting grassroots cultural spaces hardest and leaving too many Londoners without access to the benefits culture brings — from wellbeing to education and social cohesion.
After six months of inspiring leadership sessions, eye-opening field trips, and thought-provoking discussions with industry experts, our Future London Leaders 39 were ready to take the spotlight. With ideas ranging from community-run parks and inclusive sports spaces to supporting local music venues, our leaders will present creative ideas to inspire a more inclusive, accessible, and diverse London.
These bold, forward-thinking proposals are more than just ideas — they’re blueprints for change. Whether it’s safeguarding queer venues, reimagining overlooked urban spaces like MUGAs, harnessing data to protect local culture, or expanding access to the arts beyond central London, our cohort tackled inequality head-on. Their work proves that equitable cultural infrastructure is not just possible — it’s essential to London’s future.
We’re incredibly proud of all our Future London Leaders and the creativity, passion, and purpose they’ve brought to this programme. We look forward to continuing this journey — championing inclusive leadership and supporting the next generation of changemakers across our city.
Find all summary proposals here.
Favourite Idea
This Won’t Take Long: Why We Need a Meanwhile Use Permit
Aidan Fletcher Watts, Senior Development Manager, OPDC
“Across London, cultural and community groups struggle to find affordable space while valuable sites sit empty due to planning restrictions and uncertainty. To address this, I propose a new Meanwhile Use Permit (MUP)—a flexible, time-limited planning tool that enables temporary cultural and community use of vacant spaces. An MUP would grant automatic, short-term planning permission for defined uses, give landowners legal clarity on terms, and reduce red tape for operators. It could be delivered locally using existing planning powers like Local
Development Orders, piloted in Creative Enterprise Zones or willing boroughs, and aligned with the Mayor’s Cultural Infrastructure Plan. MUPs offer a simple, scalable way to turn vacancy into vitality, supporting artists, entrepreneurs, and local communities.”
Most Feasible
Streetspace Starter Pack
Johanna Gewolker, Principal Transport Planner, Camden Council
“The Streetspace Starter Pack is a youth-led public space design sprint held over the summer holidays, aimed at quickly transforming underused public spaces—especially as traffic reduction schemes expand across London. Young people are recruited via schools and youth clubs, with trained facilitators (such as youth workers or university students) supporting each group. Participants identify local spaces in need of improvement and prototype creative ideas, testing them through community engagement and workshops. Working within a set budget and council-defined constraints, the sprint runs over several weeks and ends with a public showcase. Projects address key challenges facing young people today and could be funded through a mix of capital and youth or education funding.”
Best Pitch
Cultural infrastructure – we need to think outside the box!
Rose Jump, Senior Consultant, PRD
“We need to define culture with communities, to ensure new housing developments reflect and build upon the stories and heritage of London’s neighbourhoods. There are targets for over 80,000 new homes delivered per year for the next decade in London. Existing toolkits for the provision of cultural infrastructure in developments focus on building design and how to deliver spaces which host culture. Thinking of cultural infrastructure in this way can be limiting. Culture needs to be thought of holistically and incorporated across all stages of design and development. My proposal is for a new toolkit with ideas for how you can use community engagement to define culture and heritage with residents, and use this to shape design, public realm, and infrastructure provision in new developments.”
You can find all the candidates’ summaries here.
Congratulation to all FLL39 candidates and welcome to our Alumni Network!
- Adrian Moore, Senior Development and Delivery Manager at Home Group
- Ann Samarakone, Senior Finance Business Partner at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing
- Ashley Neat, Programme Manager at Westminster City Council
- Betty Owoo, Senior Design Officer at GLA Good Growth
- Catherine Zhandire, Lead Principal Planner at Redbridge Council
- Chris Wisby, Senior Development Project Manager at Places for London
- David Bord, Principal Planning Officer at Bromley Council
- Garima Nayyar, Senior Urban Planner/Designer at City of London
- Gopalakrishnan Gomathinayagam, BIM Manager at L&Q
- Gregory Odia, Local Business Procurement Manager at Richmond and Wandsworth Councils
- Johanna Gewolker, Principal Transport Planner at Camden Council
- Aidan Fletcher Watts, Senior Development Manager at OPDC
- Kevin Hoey, Waste Strategy Manager at Sutton Council
- Rose Jump, Senior Consultant at PRD
- Dawid Miszkurka, Portfolio Surveyor at Kingston Council
- Vaggy Georgali, Principal Strategic Planner, Place Unit at GLA
Special thank you to our FLL39 mentors for giving their time and support
- Mike Keily, Planning Consultant & Director at Planning & Regeneration Ltd
- Katie Randall, Associate Director – City Economics and Urban Strategy at Arup
- Tom Fox Senior Associate We Made That
- Michael Forrester, Head of Development Management at Lewisham Council
- Nick Bec, Associate Director at Dataminr
- Jessica Crowe, Director of Culture, Strategy & Engagement at Haringey Council
- Matt Dillon, Associate Director – City Economics Team
- Kirty Spindler, Senior Strategy Director at Local Partnerhsips LLP
- Claire Harding, Head of Housing Strategy & Insight at Greenwich Council
- Jonathan Goldstraw, Senior Project Director at Hyde Housing
- Philippa Bancroft, Head of Engagement at Westminster City Council
- Steve Beard, Partner at Beacon Partnerships LLP
- Guy Palmer, Director of Regeneration at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing
- Liz Skelland, Head of Programme Health and Care Space at Newham
- Sarah O’Neill, Senior Development Manager at Camden Council
- Colin Boxall, Managing Consultant at Inner Circle Consulting
Find out more about the Future London Leaders programme. Thanks to Urbancanda for delivering first-class leadership modules and to programme supporters SEC Newgate for hosting the event.
Future London Leaders is sponsored by Devonshires.
