How can London’s placemakers protect long-term value while still delivering homes and infrastructure at pace? Out future leaders found answers in community engagement, systems-thinking, and connecting people to place.
Over six months of learning, field trips, and collaboration, our Future London Leaders (FLL43) explored how to deliver quality placemaking through balancing trade-offs and finding systems-thinking solutions.
Participants saw a hybrid approach to new build vs retrofit in Camden and delivering neighbourhood renewal while maintaining community trust in Westminster, grounding big ideas in real places, people, and delivery challenges.
Future of London’s current research programme, Sustaining quality placemaking in challenging times, highlights the intense pressure to navigate the trade-offs between maintain viability and sustaining quality placemaking.
Guided by this approach, each Future London Leader developed a personal pitch combining passion, experience and a clear call to action. The proposals addressed various issues from tackling vacancies in mixed-use developments and embedding intergenerational spaces in student accommodation to tailoring approaches to community review panels and providing more pram-friendly facilities.
We are proud of the ambition, creativity, and energy that FLL43 brought to the placemaking theme. Their work demonstrates that quality placemaking is possible when we design with care, inclusion, and long-term thinking at the centre.
Favourite Idea
Intergen spaces – Breaking barriers
Wing Lau, Planning Team Leader at Southwark Council
London and the rest of the UK have an ageing population. At the same time, many developments contribute to age segregation and isolation. Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) remains a strong and growing sector, with extensive communal spaces that could be better used to support intergenerational placemaking. This proposal advocates embedding intergenerational spaces within PBSA schemes through planning policy, partnerships and management plans, creating more inclusive, connected and age-friendly communities.
Most Feasible
Vacancy Rental Scheme
James McCormack, Regeneration Manager, Tower Hamlets Council
My Proposal for London aims to help address the vacancy problem in new mixed-use developments by proposing a developer obligation to rent out new flats at reduced / key worker rates if flats are vacant for longer than a set period. A similar idea could be applied to vacant commercial spaces. I propose that the GLA establishes a vacancy rental and brokerage scheme to gather data on vacancy and match prospective tenants with vacant units.
Best Pitch
IN-STEP: Connecting Place, People, and Belonging
James Mitchell, Senior Programme Manager, London Legacy Development Corporation
My proposal Is IN-STEP, a national strategy that recognises community discovery walks as a form of social infrastructure. We’re in a time of growing loneliness and social fragmentation; IN-STEP offers a low-cost way to sustain quality placemaking by strengthening connections between people and place. It builds on the psychogeographic concept of the dérive, and uses facilitated walks that combine storytelling, reflection, and local exploration to increase wellbeing, social cohesion, and civic participation.
Read all proposal summaries!
Congratulations to all FLL43 candidates and welcome to our Alumni Network!
- Adwoa Asihene, Business Change Manager at Peabody
- Amy Tempest, Principal Area Planner at TfL
- Ann Biggs, Head of Planning and Building Control at Sutton Council
- Bronte Smith, Team Leader – Planning Policy & Infrastructure at Be First
- Cinzia De Vincenziis, Place Shaping Lead – Principal Planner at Newham Council
- Georgia McBirney, Interim Principal Planning Officer at City of London Corporation
- Helena Woodland, Senior Estates Surveyor at Harrow Council
- James McCormack, Regeneration Manager at Tower Hamlets Council
- James Mitchell, Programme Manager at LLDC
- Kreena Patel, Estates Portfolio Lead at Barnet Council
- Megan Rowe, Acting Growth and Delivery Team Leader at Kensington and Chelsea Council
- Petruta Nila, Strategic Finance Manager at Soho Housing
- Rita Adeoye, Design Principal – Accessibility & Inclusive Design at LLDC
- Thomas Simnett, Principal Planning Officer (Development Management) at Lewisham Council
- Wing Lau, Planning Team Leader at Southwark Council
Special thank you to our FLL43 mentors for giving their time and support
- Aisha Butera, Associate Director – Inclusive Growth at AtkinsRéalis
- Bhakti Depala, Director, Town Planner and Partnerships Lead at Savills
- Chris Carthy, Assistant Director – Housing Regeneration & Delivery at Hackney Council
- Claire Harding, Head of Housing Strategy and Insight at Greenwich Council
- Daniel Pope, Chief Planning Officer at Camden Council
- David Pack, Assistant Director – Economic Development & Growth at Hammersmith & Fulham Council
- Elaine Ambrose, Strategic Initiatives and Programme Manager at L&Q
- Hannah Langford, Partner at Devonshires
- Katerina Papavasileiou, ESG & Responsibilities Director at Federated Hermes
- Matin Miah, Interim AD – Regeneration and Estate Renewal at Greenwich Council
- Neil Hook, Director of Property Development at Places for London
- Neil Kirby, Assistant Director – Sustainable Growth at Southwark Council
- Paul Dooley, Director of Development and Regeneration at Poplar HARCA
- Rheanne Holm, Neighbourhood Regeneration Manager at Lambeth Council
- Robert Davy, Lead Local Plan Consultant at Castle Point Borough Council
- Sophie Beagles, Head of regeneration, investment and jobs at Ealing Council
Find out more about the Future London Leaders programme. Thanks to Urbancanda for delivering first-class leadership modules and to programme supporters SEC Newgate.
Future London Leaders is sponsored by Devonshires.
