Tonight the CPA appoints its new chair, in a building she has helped deliver, on a terrace that looks at St Paul’s. Not a bad start.
Helical, Orion, and the teams on this site deserve praise. 100 New Bridge Street reaches practical completion this month. 80% of the superstructure retained, recovered or recycled. The existing structure retained and reskinned for thermal performance. A genuinely carbon-serious refurbishment of a building much of the market would have demolished. That is a standard this building will be measured against for a while, and the rest of the sector has a new bar to clear. Worth saying so in the room, while we are in it.
Tonight marks three things.
First, Nikki Dibley: the CPA’s third woman chair in 122 years. A big moment — and of course too few women, which the CPA knows. But, the City can hardly speak, mind you. Three female Lord Mayors in over 800 years. So let’s just celebrate Nikki’s appointment, and look forward to her time in office.
Second, Simon Swietochowski as Vice Chair, bringing asset-management experience to a conversation that needs it.
And third, the building finishing its work around us.
Nikki, Simon: welcome.
Before I go on, I want to acknowledge Ross Sayers’s chairmanship. The relationship between the CPA and the Corporation matters because it keeps the conversation honest between the industry and us as a planning authority. Ross, you have been central to that. We are grateful. It’s been a pleasure working with you.
I am coming up on a year as chair. I thought it might be more useful to share some reflections on what I have actually seen, rather than re-read you my MIPIM briefing notes.
The first thing I noticed is that we approve a lot of tall buildings, and we do it quickly.
The second thing I learned is never to make predictions. In my first interview as chair, I announced that the age of the viewing gallery was over. We are now approaching fifty million visitors to the City’s public viewing galleries. A new public terrace at One Leadenhall opened last week. And the Liverpool Street scheme includes the largest new roof garden in London. So if you are looking for bold planning predictions, I am not your man.
Liverpool Street was the decision that attracted most attention in my first year. Complex, contested, of national consequence. The committee took the evidence, weighed it, and resolved to grant in February. The Mayor and the Secretary of State still have their say, so I will not revisit the scheme tonight.
But the process around it exposed something structural. The planning objection system has no requirement for objections to be factual. A quasi-judicial framework that weighs feelings as equivalent to facts is not a problem of one scheme; it is a problem of the system. And I think the sector should be willing to talk about it.
That is the year behind us. The year ahead is different.
Last year was the City’s year of record planning applications. This year, I want it to be our year of construction. We do not want approvals to be banked. We want them built. We do not want idle cranes.
The Corporation does its best to be proactive and supportive in getting schemes through the system, and I think this room would acknowledge that. But the support comes with an expectation: that consents turn into reality. Where there are genuine viability reasons for delay, we understand. Where schemes are stalled without good reason, we will be opening a dialogue to better understand why.
I have worked most of my time in business. There is never the perfect time to do a deal, to invest – it’s about managing risk. And we do what we can to de-risk what’s possible: a stable predictable planning process, responsive and engaged team, and a clear plan-led system.
AND Our City Plan 2040 is expected to move to adoption this summer. The Inspector’s report is expected shortly, the May committee cycle carries it forward, adoption follows.
That is the moment when a long piece of policy work becomes the regime applicants, investors, designers, and this industry operate within, all the way to 2040. 1.2 million square metres of net additional office floorspace. We all know where tall works, and where it doesn’t — the plan says so plainly. A stronger heritage formulation than the national framework that celebrates heritage, and champions re-use and investment over idle stasis. We have new SPDs adopting behind the plan.
When the plan adopts, our policy backdrop becomes the clearest in the country. That matters most to the people in this room making long-term decisions — as I know you do.
Planning reform has been moving too. We are not responding to the latest very technical consultation round. But my position? “Get on with it.”
I believe the reforms address perhaps a third of what is needed, and they have not properly grappled for example with section 106. But the direction of travel is positive.
This brings to how we work going into my second year.
Gwyn, our planning director is here tonight. A year working with him and his team has convinced me if anyone needed convincing of their utmost professionalism.
From September, more schemes will sit in delegated authority with the planning team, and therefore the committee’s remit will concentrate on the most strategically significant cases. That shift puts more weight on the pre-application stage, where standards are laid out before a scheme ever reaches committee.
Gwyn and I have shaped our response to this shift. The planning team will continue with their structured pre-application dialogue on schemes. And so on the most strategic and significant schemes, I will join many of those pre-application conversations with you, not to take decisions, not to form a view on any application, but to make sure the room has heard, clearly and early, the expectations on how your scheme is likely to be received at member level. And of course to hear from you.
You have the best-resourced and most effective planning team in the country working on these schemes from our side.
And so, bring your best, and bring it early. Our standards are high, and they will stay high.
I spoke in February of the need for us all to pull together in the national mission of growth. The CPA’s part in this matters greatly, and will continue to matter over the next year and beyond.
You hold us to account. You push us on practicality. You bring the perspectives of the people who actually build and manage these buildings. Our partnership with you is how we get better outcomes. How we deliver growth.
So: a strong pipeline, a planning system that works when others don’t. A great team and a reliable partner. Let’s get building.
Nikki, the chair is yours. Two years is long enough to move things forward. That is your opportunity. Take it.
Charles, thank you for having us.
It’s my pleasure to introduce the new Chair of the CPA, Nikki Dibley.
