Expert Panel Chairs meeting

Head of Programme

Once again, we brought together all the Chairs of our NLA Expert Panels, and once again the exchange has been highly stimulating, full of ideas and collective thinking. All Expert Panels are working together towards the New London Agenda, and to kick us off, Sadie Morgan, the new chair of the New London Sounding Board, presented the three core themes through which all Panels will start to frame their work: taking collective responsibility, providing clarity and building trust.

Each of our chairs then shared their thoughts on these themes from the perspective of their panel discussions so far and presented key issues each of them has been discussing.

Here’s a quick summary of each Expert Panel chair:

Industrial & Logistics

Chair: Tom Alexander, Director, Aukett Swanke

Intensification: rethinking how to intensify industrial use on existing land but recognising and balancing different needs for different use classes. Can we imagine a building as a flexible chassis to be used in the next 100 years?
Co-location: mixing uses with industrial and logistics, not just residential but also retail, education, and workplaces. Thinking of a “screening” of what blends work in which locations
Networks: mapping out the key networks and hotspots for moving goods for a better integration
Environment: industrial buildings can perform excellently in environmental terms. They have big surfaces all around to be used for energy generation
Technology: how can technology further enhance all the above

Tall Buildings

Chair: Stuart Baillie, Partner, Head of Planning, Knight Frank

Criteria: Local Authorities in London are taking different approaches to define what a tall building is. Despite the various approaches, there is a common feeling that this will be agreed upon on a site-by-site basis
Design quality: what does good look like? Sharing best practice is key to spreading the message of the benefits a good tall building in the right location can bring to a local area
Sustainability: there is a case for sustainable tall buildings considering the long life span of these structures. But the industry will need to work harder to explain the benefits of building tall and deliver net zero carbon high-rise developments
Viability: Costs of construction, material shortage, changing policies and evolving design requirements are impacting the delivery of schemes

NetZero

Chair: Ashley Bateson, Partner, Hoare Lea

Promoting circularity: reusing the existing building stock poses some key questions in particular around the storage, movement and exchange of circular materials
Retro First: supporting the industry to prioritise, resource and deliver retrofitting
Support built environment professionals working towards net zero carbon, through mechanisms such as design review panels

Innovation Districts

Chair: Jonathan Burroughs, CEO, Creative Places

Planning and policy on place-making, public realm, affordable workplaces,
Sustainability of laboratories, including repurposing lab buildings
Repositioning London as a global innovation hub
Redefining the composition of Innovation Districts

Work

Chair: Katrina Kostic Samen, Head of Workplace Strategy and Design, KKS Savills

People: what do employees want and need out of their workplaces today? How is hybrid working impacting cities?
Planet: what is the office of the future in terms of sustainability? How to engage with office workers, visitors and surrounding communities on the climate emergency?

Education

Chair: Ben Marston, Director, Jestico + Whiles

Improve access to education and training. Social value
Promote creativity in the curriculum
Net zero. Consider a roadmap for educational institutions to improve their estates, including reusing redundant spaces
The need for post-occupancy evolutions. Design quality and wellbeing in education buildings

Healthcare

Chair: Anisha Mayor, Director, UK Head of Healthcare

Suggest NHS Trust and councils work on a vision for the Integrated Care System (ICS). Campuses to look beyond red line boundaries and consider reusing assets, in a hub and spoke model. Should the NHS become a property company similar to TTLP?
Rethink funding mechanisms
Promote housing for key workers on healthcare campuses

Transport & Infrastructure

Chair: Bruce McVean, Assistant Director, Policy & Projects, City of London

Reduce car dependency. Rethink central v outer London priorities, focus on outer London to reduce car use and dependency and think of stations as interchange hubs
Improve connectivity and promote active travel. Not just quick wins but longer-term actions
Consider emerging technologies and integrate new transport modes, from e-scooters to Avs

Technical Competency

Chair: Arita Morris, Director, Child Graddon Lewis

Fire safety: the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report should come out this year and will absolutely impact the industry, in particular, the discussion around materials
Is the upcoming legislation perhaps a barrier to innovation?
Managing increasing specialism in the industry
Retrofit, especially on material specification

Planning

Chair: Jonny Popper, Managing Director, London Communications Agency

Social value: there can’t be a standard approach, but best practice should be shared
Consultation and public engagement in the planning system: how greater public engagement can be achieved in practice
Changes in planning policy: continuing to seek greater clarity and certainty (the government proposed replacement of S106 with an infrastructure levy and possible introduction of Street Votes but both remain deeply unclear) and make the case for the upskilling and increased investment in local authorities' planning resources

Wellbeing

Chair: Romy Rawlings, Commercial Director, Vestre

Consider a wellbeing standard for London, a framework to measure and deliver wellbeing
Define scope and timeframes, impact on covid still having in particular on high streets
Social value

Public Realm

Chair: Hazel Rounding, Director, shedkm

Looking at case studies championing comfort in the public realm under the following topics:

Climate resilience
Safety
Social justice

Built Environment Technology

Chair: Camilla Siggaard Andersen, Urban Research Lead, Hassell

Skills, training and collaboration. Barriers to adoption
Data and metrics, what is the data that we actually need?
Citizen engagement, participation and co-creation
Data infrastructure, the hardware
Tools and solutions companies are using in proptech – what is working? How can we promote the democratisation of tools through private-public partnerships?

Housing

Chair: Carl Vann, Partner, Pollard Thomas Edwards