Hi, Neil. How are you? 

I'm really good, thank you. 

Good. Could you put into words what Places for London's mission is today, and your role in that? 

Yes, absolutely. I'm relatively new to Places for London. This is my fourth month here, and a lot of my time has been spent working with what I have found is an incredible team here to shape what we want to do and what our mission is within London. We believe every home is a step towards a more inclusive, vibrant and resilient city, and that's core to our ambition and that's how we're going to shape our schemes - it's going to live and breathe through the things we do for years and years to come. 

Could you describe the difference in how you operate from how a conventional commercial developer operates? 

Yes, absolutely. Places for London as an organisation has been running for two years, and at the time, Transport for London created Places for London as a wholly owned company and moved a portion of its land over to the company in return for shares. So, we're completely owned by TfL; we're a publicly owned company. As Places for London, we are completely self-financed, so we're not funded at all from the transport network and TfL or fares revenue. Instead, we have over 1000 arches, and all of the in-station retail – so every Gregg's or Pret or retailer you've been to in a station – is actually Places for London. The income from that estate funds the business, and then the profits of that are recycled back to TfL. 

The other bits of land are within our living portfolio, my responsibility, and we bring them forward for residential development. We deliver homes, and the receipts of that are recirculated back into Places for London to help fund the next generation of housing delivery through the business. So, we're independent from TfL, but we actually generate an income back to TfL to help support the transport network. 

We are able both to act as a developer in that space, and we've delivered stuff directly ourselves, but the majority of our work is done in partnership, so we can take that land and either do direct disposals, where we sell straight to the market, or do it through our joint ventures. So, we have our Connected Living London partnership with Grainger, which delivers build to rent products, our Helical joint venture, the Platinum portfolio, which delivers offices and purpose-built student accommodation and commercial space, and then our East London partnership with Ballymore and our West London partnership with Barratt's that deliver the bulk of our residential. 

Why do you favour the partnership approach? 

That partnership approach, the way we've procured those partnerships, allows us to keep feeding the organisations with land. So rather than being a one-off procurement for an individual site, we've procured for a much wider portfolio of land and assets. And we can keep putting TfL land and land that we secure through partnerships into those businesses without having to keep going out for procurement. So, it allows us to move much, much quicker than I think I've ever found elsewhere in my career. 

Does it follow that most of your sites are around transport nodes? And as a subsidiary question to that, is that the correct way to go? Is it still the right model for development, in your view? 

TfL owns one and a half percent of London's land mass. We in Places for London have a small portion of that land that's surplus to requirements. But TfL keeps shifting its model and moving land until more and more land becomes available to us and keeps coming into our supply and coming into the business. The majority of that land is around transport. In most instances, that is actually around the stations and station car parks. But sometimes it's over or under lines, or it's stuff that was in the Victorian era or subsequent eras, purchased for transport purposes, but is no longer used there. So, the majority of it is in around transport hubs. But actually, some of it isn't. 

In my personal view [in answer to your question], absolutely. If you look at the distribution within London, if you look at the distribution of housing and commercial development…there's a fascinating map I saw in 2012/13 of lower super output area densities of housing delivery. You can literally trace the tube lines in housing delivery, and that was 10,15 years ago. London lives and breathes on its transport network. People commute around London, move around London and want to live in highly accessible places. So, brownfield land around transport hubs is the right place to deliver and the perfect place to deliver. It's not the only place to deliver. London's need is massive, so we will need to look at other areas, but for Places for London, that's our key focus - it's around those transport hubs, whether those are in Zone One and Two, or whether those are further afield and even in outer London and beyond. That is one of the nuances of our business: unlike some of the other public sector entities operating in London, we're not bound by geography, as we are a wholly owned commercial company. We can operate outside London. We can operate across the borders. And indeed, most recently, we've helped unlock schemes at Chalfont and Latimer, which is outside London. But because we own land there, we can operate there. So, it gives us a massive portfolio and a massive opportunity to build those bridges across the mythical M25 line. 

I noticed from your CV that you are an out of London person yourself, having been to Oldham College and Manchester College of Arts and Technology and Liverpool John Moores University. You've been in London for some time, have you? 

I was born in Bromley. I grew up in Wiltshire till I was 10, and then moved to Rochdale in North Manchester, where I grew up into my 20s. I trained as a planner there. I worked across Manchester, where I met my wife, and then we moved back down south and followed my career ever since. I actually live in Cambridgeshire now but have a deep passion for London and London as part of the UK. London not as its own bubble and not as an impact on the south. But even when I lived in Manchester and have friends who live across the country, London is a massive part of the UK economy. And when London thrives, the UK thrives. So, for me, it's all part of one fantastic country we live in. 

In terms of an overall national picture, a lot is said often about the housing crisis that we're in at the moment. Presumably, and given what you mentioned as a sneak preview on your LinkedIn page, where you mentioned that 'brilliant things that PFL will be doing in 2026' you are charged with some sort of optimism about the provision of homes towards the 1.5 million goal and target? 

Yes. Well, the government have a 1.5 million target, and we as the public sector in London, we as Transport for London, we as Places for London, will deliver and maximise the number of homes for delivery against that target. But for me, it's about every single set of front door keys that we hand over for affordable homes and for market homes and for build to rent homes and student homes. Each set of door keys is a new life and an ability to create a life for yourself. Once you have a home, you can get a job, you can build a community, you can know your neighbours, you can get a pet. You can go into education. You can build a life for yourself once you've got a roof over your head. So, every single home that we deliver delivers a legacy, and again, that's why the team was so passionate about creating a more inclusive, vibrant city - that these homes change lives. If we only delivered one home, that would still change somebody's life, but we will deliver thousands. Thousands and thousands of homes in Places for London, because it's good for London, because it's good for Transport for London, and because it's good for the people of London and our communities. 

What do you foresee as a potential unblocker of the housing supply line in London and in this country? 

Well, 2026 I think, is going to be absolutely transformational. If you think about it, the things that we have all been saying are blockers are going to fall away in 2026 

Such as what? 

Such as: in the next couple of weeks, the new affordable housing programme will launch outside and inside London. I used to work on the team with the Affordable Housing programme both in Homes England and the Greater London Authority. That is straight cash grant payable at start on site that's at guaranteed levels from a source that has that money secured. It is cash up front, pre-purchase of homes. It is a fantastic driver for the market and driving for security, for pipeline. If you deliver affordable homes first, in your scheme, you know you've got that cash coming. That's backed in April by the launch of the National Housing Bank and the new loans programmes through Homes England and the GLA, so there will be a massive release - billions of pounds of release - of market-facing interest accruing loans and mezzanine finance available specifically to kick start housing across England, and particularly in London. So, you've got these coming in. You've then got the emergency housing measures. The consultation will complete in that, and that will shape into a resolute approach to creating more capacity for housing delivery. You've had the Building Safety Regulator, which has been fantastic in shifting our understanding and our approach to safety, but has had issues and has been a blocker. The Building Safety Regulator has confirmed they'll move to a staged approach. We will be able to start on site. That's a fantastic unblocker in getting things moving. And then you will have Places for London – we are uniquely positioned with the government's announcement of permission in principle around stations. The planning risk for Places for London - we were having a drink and a celebration at Christmas around this - falls away for people who are doing business with Places for London. So, we'll have grant money flowing into the system, loan money to make sure finance is available. We will have a Building Safety Regulator that's refreshing itself and making sure that things can start on site and for Places to London, particularly, a new approach to zonal-led planning. I mean, who wouldn't want that for 2026? 

There will still be blockers. There'll still be things in the way. But those have always been the big ones, and those are the ones we know are going to fall away. So, I'm really positive about what we're going to do and what we can do as Places for London in that space, and we're a market based on confidence. If somebody strikes out and makes it successfully, you can make sure that there'll be people following. So, I hope we're going to lead the way, and there'll be a change in dynamic and a change in positivity in the market in 2026. 

Well, that's a really positive point to end on. And actually, is a pretty good description, I think, of the ‘brilliant things’ you prefaced. Thank you very much for your time. And here's to a great 12 months. 

Here's to a fantastic 12 months and a fantastic legacy for London! 

Brilliant. Thanks. Neil! 

Places for London’s “Talking Places” podcast is at: https://open.spotify.com/show/6bw1L5KDj7mVjYzvVwN7n4