Two years into her role, Marianne Brook, Development Director, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, joins David Taylor to discuss the progress, ambition and long-term vision driving the area’s transformation.

Hi, Marianne. How are you? 

 

I'm great, thanks. How are you doing? 

 

Very good, thank you. I'm keen to talk to you because it's two years since you started your role at Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC). Could I start by asking what you've done and learnt in that period, and about both the area that's under your jurisdiction and the role? 

 

Yes, no problem. Two years has flown by, really, since I started, and I think the key thing that we've been doing during that time is assembling land. That's been our main focus; making sure that we've got the fundamental requirement to be able to deliver regeneration, which is control of the land. 

So, we've been working to buy up land that sits around the DfT sites, the HS2 worksites delivering the HS2 programme, and we've been pretty successful in doing that. Now we're at about just under 98% of all of the land holdings we need to be able to deliver our vision for place. That's been a key focus. 

But I think alongside that, we've also been thinking about it through a placemaking, masterplanning lens in terms of: what is this place going to be? The focus hasn't been how many homes can we build. It's been very much about how we can create a place where people actually want to work and to live and to spend time, so developing an illustrative masterplan, a masterplan framework. And I would say those two things have been quite key over the last two years since I started. 

But in terms of what I've learned during that time, which I should have probably already known – because before I joined OPDC, I was working at Homes England as a project director for the business case – is that the new DC area, this part of London, is really incredible. 

We've got Park Royal, which is London's largest industrial estate – a curiosity cabinet of things. You know, everything from small maker spaces through to major logistics hubs and everything between in terms of creatives, startups, the entrepreneurial spirit. I just didn't really realise that before I joined the job. And that is such an incredible foundation or baseline to be starting from – that you actually have a community and a place that is already full of opportunity. So, we're not starting from scratch. 

That's been a big learning curve for me; understanding, frankly, the breadth and depth of that existing community and ecosystem. 

 

Because it's still not really well known, is it, as an area in the public eye? 

 

That's right, it's not, which is crazy because about a third of all food in London passes through Park Royal. So, any food that you have, whether it's at your dining table at home or in a restaurant, or in a hotel, a third of it passes through Park Royal. 

It's very much the engine of London. 

So, it's kind of uncharted territory for many. And definitely, if you get a chance, you should go and walk through Old Park Royal. It’s really incredible. 

 

I read that you want to make it a new 'destination' for London. I thought that word "destination" was interesting in the context of it not being a place that people just pass through, especially given the super hub and the transport connections. How do you marry those things up? 

 

I think it's very much about thinking of this as a piece of city rather than just another development opportunity. 

Ultimately, the most successful large-scale regeneration schemes combine housing, offices, retail, leisure, public realm, community infrastructure, and people. We've got the scale to do that at Old Oak. So, I think with all of those goodies and all of those kinds of elements within our masterplan and within our broader development corporation area, I think we definitely have the potential to make it somewhere that people want to go and visit. They’ll want to go and see it. They'll see it as an exciting new part of London that, as I was saying earlier, is slightly uncharted for many. 

So that's definitely the ambition, because this isn't just about housing. In many ways I think the commercial component may actually ultimately prove to be just as important as all of the housing. 

Obviously, we've got eight 8000 homes, which is a huge number, but approximately 2 million square feet of commercial space as well. So, yes, I think those elements make it somewhere that really could be a destination. 

 

What sort of businesses or sectors are you hoping to attract? Are they allied to the food sector, or how does that work? 

 

We're really fortunate that there is a creative sector that is also quite prevalent in Park Royal; food, as I was saying, but we also have Imperial London, which in the last few years, has invested quite heavily in the area. They've got two key sites that they are developing, and the concept of West Tech and the expansion of the innovation cluster out of White City is something that plays quite heavily into our long-term ambition. So, I think it is really around innovation, but not just the deep tech, highly paid, highly skilled jobs. It's actually the foundational side of the economy as well. So, you know, ensuring that we've got the right skills programmes in place now to give opportunities for the local residents to get jobs in those sectors as they mature. I think that innovation is really key. 

But it also does feel like that's the buzzword at the moment. Many of these new regen sites are saying, oh, we want to be an innovation hub. But actually, I do think we've got the ingredients to do that in a quite organic but successful way. So, with the connections that are coming from transport perspectives, the international dimension as well, with routes out to Heathrow and with the Heathrow Express, it'll be about 10 minutes. 

But then, of course, having a major institution like Imperial anchoring in our patch, I think all of those things really help to set the foundation for innovation. It's already happening in Park Royal, just on a very small scale because it's really about the platform for change. I'm not sure if I've even answered your question, to be honest! 

 

No, I think you have. But I mean, just moving on to the Mayoral Development Corporation aspect of your work – does that help? I think you were the second behind London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) in terms of being set up? 

 

We are, yes. We were the second mayoral development corporation in London, and it was established in 2015. 

So, the organisation has been around for a long time now, and within that, there's been quite a lot that has happened that's been very well documented. We very much have a vision now for the future around delivering regeneration on public land. But I do think that having and being a development corporation is material in being able to make these things happen. 

 

Why? 

 

We've got the planning powers, and we are actually hosted by three boroughs in our area. So, by having the planning powers, we're able to bring together a coherent local plan that addresses our specific object, which is regeneration. So, the LPA side, which is independent from the work that I do, but having that LPA is really critical. 

But I think also having a delivery team that is really focusing on getting the right skills in to deliver it – so skills around land assembly, securing public funding and private funding, and also knowing how to really de-risk and curate one of these projects. 

But the principal thing I think is being able to be completely focused on it. We don’t have any of the kind of the things that might be quite challenging in terms of capacity and time that a local authority would have. We're not the highways authority. We're not the waste authority. We are purely focused on regeneration, and that means we are very deliberate in our action, but we can also move at pace. 

So, I think having the LPA side, having the right skills on delivery, but also the powers that sit with that, being able to acquire land is really critical, and being able to make sure that you can deliver. 

 

It feels like that their time is now in in many respects with other Mayoral Development Corporations like Oxford Street springing up. Do you see that as a kind of growing trend within this political climate? 

 

I think development corporations can be a really powerful tool. In any of their guises, they can be really, really effective. But they can't just be established. They actually need to also be empowered with the right people and powers. So, just the existence of a development corporation alone doesn't create the change. 

In our case, of those 11 years, for probably eight of them, there were just planning powers. There was no funding. There was no real project that had the focus. So, I think for anyone that's being established around the country, it's making sure it is well resourced with funding, with clarity over its purpose and getting the right people in as well to drive it forward. But fundamentally, I think development corporations are very effective. 

 

So, what's next for you? What are you looking forward to, and what can we see in the next year, say, or term – a year to five years? 

 

Over the next year – we're right in the middle of our procurement for a development partner at the moment; on 31st of July it closed for bid submissions. So, the next few months, for me, will be very focused around working through those bids, dialogue, and ultimately selecting our preferred partner for a joint venture. And that joint venture will be a long-term one, a strategic one focused around planning, so the masterplanning of the area, and then ultimately bringing forward development. That's a key thing.

We're very interested in really pushing forward with our meanwhile strategy and making sure we're getting in early occupiers to really bring about change in the Old Oak OPDC area sooner rather than later. It will be watch this space in terms of activity happening up at Old Oak. 

But yes, next year is very much the JV – getting that set up and moving forward, and at the same time, de-risking planning. We never stop working on making sure that the planning route is as straightforward as it can be. So: thinking about Section 106 framework, our EIA strategy, and all that detail that hopefully will be beneficial once we get our JV partner. 

 

Well, it sounds like you've got your hands full with all of that. Good luck with it all. I'd love to come and visit and see it over the next couple of years. 

 

Definitely, yes, you're welcome any time! 

 

Great. All right. Lovely to speak to you. 

 

You too, Bye!