At a seminar on reindustrialisation. My notes for talk are
Recall Sam Aaronovich’s London/Berlin conference 1995 at the end of which a Berling green part politician said “capitalism won’t employ us all: we’ll have to employ each other”. Continue reading “re-industrialisation”
This was a meeting at the TCPA to launch – to a mainly planning gathering – a manifesto drafted by PNUK for a more progressive approach to planning and land in the UK. Bob Colenutt in the chair. Everyone had been encouraged to read the document in advance – and most seemed to have done so. Great.
I have to prepare a talk for a history conference, with an eye on the future. Comments and help welcome.
[Later 9 Feb, I did the talk but now have to convert it into a text. Really hard to do the talk in 30 minutes. The slides will be here when I can get it small enough to upload.]
The conference is called WINDOWS UPON PLANNING HISTORY. My title was given to me first as Windows on Community Movements in the UK, later as Opening new Windows on Power Structures in the UK but then I submitted an abstract and gave it a new title:
The mirror as a window: what can today’s oppositional practices tell us about future history? Continue reading “The future”
Next Tuesday 5 Feb sees the London launch of the draft Manifesto for planning and land reform prepared by a working group of the Planners Network UK at 1330 (coffee) for 1400 start at the TCPA. Details are below and the draft document is a free download from pnuk.org.uk
Try to read the draft before you come. There will be a brief summary, then comments from Dr Hugh Ellis (TCPA chief planner), Anna Minton (author of Ground Control and Fortress Britain) and Prof Yvonne Rydin (Director of the UCL Environment Institute) with plenty of time for discussion in a session scheduled to end at 1600h.
Continue reading “Manifesto for progressive planning – launch – #pnuk”
Notes taken at a seminar hosted by the University of East London (UEL) in the offices of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). 30 January 2013. Ralph Ward in the chair, ex-DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government) now prof at UEL. “East London’s big projects stop at their edges as though dropped from aky… – Canary Wharf (CW), Westfield, Excel…” (very scrappy notes so far but I’ll try and edit them, clean them up) Continue reading “UEL seminar on post-Olympic regeneration in East London”
Some rough notes from conference 19 January. My 10-minute talk is here. edwards for js kings 20130119 First contributions captured only in tweets – which I have pasted together and slightly edited. Continue reading “Anti-displacement conference”
January 15th 2013 Southwark Council planning committee met to determine planning application from LendLease for redevelopment of Heygate Estate. This is just a preliminary post, for later expansion. It is the most substantial example of the disastrous process going on in London where council estates are being emptied and cleared to create space for private development and the crisis is being used to lower drastically the % of replacement social rented housing on “viability” grounds: a kind of downwards ratchet. More at 35% And there’s a reasonably good report in London’s evening paper, the Standard. Continue reading “Sell-out to developers at Heygate, Southwark (+links)”
One of the most remarkable things about last week’s EiP on the Mayor’s proposed changes to the Plan was—on reflection—the London Boroughs’ vigorous defence of their capacity and need to develop social rented housing at low rents. Continue reading “London Plan EiP (2): Boroughs bite back”
The Examination in Public (EiP) on the Mayor’s Revised Early Minor Alterations to the London Plan (REMA) is in its crucial day: debating the Mayor’s switch of emphasis, away from housing those in the greatest need (who may be able to afford social housing rent but not “affordable rent” at 65-80% of local market rents) towards those higher up the income scale. The opposition is very strong indeed, coming from Borough Councils (!), many of whom have been doing good analytical work and whose views were powerfully put by officers (including some ex-students of ours) from Westminster, TH, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, plus a very wide range of tenants and residents groups.
Benson (GLA Hsg) the new system is shifting public spending burden from capital grant to revenue (HB). Continue reading “London Plan EiP”
Yesterday saw UCL students union hosting a public debate on this proposal, with speakers from the local residents groups, GamesMonitor, UCL academics (me and Prof Murray Fraser) and active students. UCL management was represented by Andrew Grainger, head of Estates, and two other men whom I don’t know. Minutes will appear, I guess, and the BBC was filming so it may figure in a broadcast sometime. Earlier in the day there had been a routine staff meeting of our UCL department ( the Bartlett School of Planning ) for which I had prepared a briefing paper.
This post is just my texts for these two events + some links. Continue reading “UCL proposed new campus at Stratford, replacing the Carpenters Estate”
michael edwards 